Albright visits Mideast to make sure of deadline respect, spokesman

The main goal of US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's visit to the Middle East next week is to make sure the deadline set by Palestinians and Israelis for a peace framework is met, her chief spokesman James Rubin said on Wednesday.

Rubin said that the February deadline is fast approaching, with hurdles still left to overcome.

"This is an extraordinarily difficult process that requires us to work very hard at it and that we do not have exaggerated expectations about moving the ball forward," Rubin said.

He said, "The Secretary hopes that those issues are resolved between discussions between Israel and the Palestinians in the way they've been resolved in the past."

Rubin went on that Albright intends to carry out shuttle diplomacy between Israel and Syria to get that phase of the Middle East peace process back on track.

Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian track, Rubin said that Albright would like to see the two sides work out their differences over the transfer of West Bank land and other issues on the table on their own.