Rice to visit Mideast early next year

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit the Middle East in early 2007 for a new push to break the deadlock in the Middle East peace process, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said at a briefing on Thursday.

"I'm sure she will be traveling to the Middle East at some point early in the new year," McCormack said.

"But, again, you want to go there, you want to travel there when you think you can move the process forward in some way or, if need be, if there's been a setback, to try to remediate," McCormack said.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who met with U.S. President George W. Bush in the White House on Thursday, said he would visit the Middle East soon on a peace mission.

The Middle East peace process has been deadlocked since the radical Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections early this year. The U.S.-led West has cut off all aid or contacts with the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

Source: Xinhua