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EU's Solana begins Mid-East tour EU's Solana begins Mid-East tour
(about 7 hours later)
The European Union's Foreign Policy Chief, Javier Solana, is to start a three-day trip to the Middle East. The EU's foreign policy chief is in Lebanon at the start of a three-day Middle East tour which will take him to Syria for the first time since 2005.
He will visit Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria on his regional tour. Javier Solana's tour, which also takes in Saudi Arabia, is described by EU officials as a listening trip.
It will be the first trip to Syria since a two-year French veto on direct contact with the country was lifted. He hopes to ease political tensions in Lebanon and encourage reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions.
Mr Solana's aides say that this is a listening trip, designed to take soundings at a time when some feel the possibility of some positive change. The officials say he will ask Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to play a constructive role in regional crises.
In Lebanon, Mr Solana will see Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and the speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, to discuss the long political stalemate there. It will be Mr Solana's first trip to Syria since a two-year French veto on direct contact with the country - following the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri - was lifted.
Then he will head on to Saudi Arabia for meetings with the king and the foreign minister. Syria has denied involvement in the killing. Its officials have been implicated in a UN-appointed enquiry.
Saudi Arabia has been pursuing a more active role in Palestinian politics for some time now and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is something that the EU has traditionally been deeply involved in. In another possible sign of increasing re-acceptance of Damascus, a senior US state department official is to hold talks in Syria on the highest-level US visit since 2005.
Finally, Mr Solana will travel to Syria. Assistant Secretary of State for Refugees and Migration Ellen Sauerbrey is to discuss the plight of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees in Syria.
There, he will have a message for President Bashar al-Assad that the EU wants Syria to take a constructive role the region, in particular, in Lebanon. The visit comes shortly after another senior US official, David Satterfield, sat down with Syria's deputy foreign minister at a Baghdad security conference.
Saudi diplomacy
In Beirut, Mr Solana will see Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and the speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, to discuss the long political stalemate there.
Rival Lebanese political leaders held talks last week that raised hopes of a possible solution.
No details of the discussions were released, and the only agreement appeared to be to meet again for further talks.
The Saudi leg of the trip reflects Riyadh's increasingly centre-stage diplomatic role in relation to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
In March, Saudi Arabia brokered a unity agreement between the rival Palestinian factions Fatah and the ruling Hamas party.
Israel, its Western allies and a number of international bodies have boycotted the Hamas-led Palestinian government, demanding it renounce violence and sign up to past agreements with Israel.