Ross to arrive in the region this week

US State Department spokesman James Foley said on Monday that US envoy and peace process coordinator Dennis Ross will head for the Middle East this week.

He will meet with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "finalize US ideas" about the peace process.

Foley said the Israeli Cabinet's rejection yesterday of the new US initiative was premature, "I don't believe that the Israeli cabinet has acted on the basis of formal and final US ideas." Foley said that the US does not have a plan ready to propose and that the US ideas on the peace process "are still in the process of finalization."

Ross' trip will determine the US approach to the deadlocked process, Foley said, "We're going to assess where we stand on the basis of the results he obtains this week."