EU's Ashton in Israel to seek lifeline for peace

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Friday held early talks with Israel's Avigdor Lieberman before heading to the West Bank to meet top Palestinian officials over the impasse in peace talks. The European Union's top diplomat arrived in Israel on Thursday evening after meeting her Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh in Amman, officials said. After arriving, she held private talks with Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni, then had an early breakfast meeting with the Israeli foreign minister on Friday, EU spokesman David Kriss said, without giving details of what they discussed. Later on Friday she will meet Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad then have dinner with president Mahmud Abbas in a bid to push the sides into finding a way back to the negotiating table after direct talks ended last September. Before arriving, Ashton said she was pushing for an urgent meeting of the Middle East Quartet of peacemaking diplomats which she would discuss with both sides. "I have proposed a meeting of the Quartet to help relaunch negotiations and will be looking for positive signs from all sides," she said in a statement released on Wednesday. "With the momentous events going on in North Africa and following (US) President (Barack) Obama's speech last month, it is more urgent than ever that we kickstart the Middle East peace process." Ashton will travel to Cairo on Saturday to discuss events in Libya, then will return to Israel on Sunday for a joint meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Quartet envoy Tony Blair, Kriss said. She will then fly to Luxembourg to brief the EU's 27 foreign ministers on the mission at a meeting on Monday. Ashton is just one of a number of world leaders working to find a way to head off potentially volatile developments this September when the Palestinians approach the United Nations to request membership and recognition by the 192-member body in a move fiercely opposed by Israel.