Rice visits Palestine, Israel next week

A spokesman for the US Department Of State said on Friday that the US secretary of state Condaleezza Rice will visit Israel and the Palestinian territories within the few next days in order to help in completing the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in its due time.

The spokesman said that Rice will leave Washington on Tuesday and will head for the Middle East after her visit to Senegal to rake part in an African economic forum and will stop then in Darfur to the west of Sudan.

The spokesman added "the state secretary's visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories will be part of the continued efforts to push the two sides forward o cooperate in the line of the withdrawal plan from Gaza and parts of the West Bank." Rice is due to return back to Washington to Washington on July 24.