Top EU diplomat Catherine Ashton begins Mideast tour in Egypt

Mar 15, 2010, 8:50 GMT

Cairo - Catherine Ashton, the European Union's top diplomat, on Monday begins an ambitious tour of the Middle East, her first visit to the region since assuming her post.

Ashton, who has faced criticism in Europe for not being visible enough since she was appointed in December, arrived in Egypt on Sunday evening, beginning a schedule that will take her to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan over the course of the week.

'I am going to the region with a clear message to encourage all actors to engage in talks that lead us to a comprehensive regional peace,' she said in a statement ahead of her visit.

She will begin her visit on Monday morning by meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit and the head of intelligence, Omar Suleiman, who has led Egypt's efforts to broker talks to reconcile rival Palestinian factions, and to free Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas near the Gaza border in 2006.

Ashton is scheduled to meet with Arab League chief Amr Moussa, and to address the Arab League, in the afternoon.

She arrives in the region at a time when international efforts to restart even indirect talks between Israelis and Palestinians are in peril.

Top US and Palestinian officials last week reacted angrily to Israel's announcement it would approve the construction of 1,600 new homes in West Bank settlements as US Vice-President Joe Biden arrived in Israel, just after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to begin indirect peace talks.

Commenting on the rise in tensions in the region from Finland, where she had met with six EU foreign ministers and Turkey's foreign minister, Ashton on Saturday called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to 'show leadership' in reviving those talks.

'I'm very worried, I'm worried that Israel announced this just as the proximity talks were beginning,' she told a group of Finnish reporters.

After US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she had been 'insulted' by Israel's announcement, Netanyahu said he would launch a top-level investigation into its timing.

EU foreign ministers rallied behind Ashton ahead of her visit, after months of sniping from European capitals and diplomats in Brussels.

'What we want is simply to have Europe capable of speaking with a single voice, this is the political and strategic goal,' Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said after the meeting of foreign ministers in Finland.

Ashton will need that backing as she attempts to raise the European Union's profile as a broker in the Middle East peace process.

Significantly, she has said she 'hopes' to visit the Gaza Strip during her visit.

'We are providing a huge amount of aid into Gaza, and I'm very interested in making sure that we are seeing the benefits of that aid going in,' Ashton told reporters in Spain last week.

Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin earlier this month visited the Gaza Strip, the first visit from an EU foreign minister in a year, and joined Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt in calling for more European diplomatic visits to the territory to 'demonstrate concern,' in Bildt's words.