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Rice to begin mid-July Mideast-Africa-Europe tour |
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07:25, July 10, 2007 |
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will make short visits to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Portugal during her Mideast-Africa tour later this month, the State Department said Monday.
Rice is due to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories to have talks with officials from the Israeli and Palestinian Authority governments during her July 16-20 trip.
"She will then travel to Africa, making stops in Accra, Ghana, to participate in the African Growth and Opportunities Act forum, and in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Rice's stop in D.R. Congo is to "mark the fact that this is a country that has made progress in trying to develop democratic institutions after emerging from a long period of conflict," McCormack said.
"It's an important visit, and it's important to make the fact that they are working hard to push in the right direction," he said
During her visit to Lisbon, which is a return leg of the trip, Rice will meet with officials of the Portuguese government, which currently holds the presidency of the European Union.
Rice's scheduled tour coincides with a possible meeting of the Middle East peace quartet -- comprising the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, tentatively scheduled for July 16.
Source: Xinhua
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