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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
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| EU's foreign chief to visit Gaza | EU's foreign chief to visit Gaza |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Baroness Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, is due to arrive shortly in the Gaza strip. | Baroness Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, is due to arrive shortly in the Gaza strip. |
| Ms Ashton will be one of the most senior Western political figures to visit Gaza since Hamas took power. | Ms Ashton will be one of the most senior Western political figures to visit Gaza since Hamas took power. |
| Her arrival in the Palestinian territory comes amidst a new push by the EU to revive stalled Middle East peace talks. | |
| She will later head to Moscow for a meeting of the Middle East Quartet, made up of the EU, US, UN and Russia. | |
| US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has arrived in the Russian capital for the talks. | |
| In the Middle East, Baroness Ashton is also scheduled to meet Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Israeli President Shimon Peres. | |
| But it is her visit to Gaza which is arousing the most interest, says Jon Donnison, the BBC's Gaza correspondent. | But it is her visit to Gaza which is arousing the most interest, says Jon Donnison, the BBC's Gaza correspondent. |
| Regional tour | Regional tour |
| Only two European foreign ministers have come to Gaza in the past year, our correspondent notes. | |
| Foreign officials are often refused entry by Israel, or their governments choose not to come because they do not recognise Hamas. | Foreign officials are often refused entry by Israel, or their governments choose not to come because they do not recognise Hamas. |
| The visit has been welcomed by the United Nations, which says Israel's blockade has left hundreds of thousands in Gaza living in poverty. | |
| Baroness Ashton is on a regional tour that began in Cairo and also includes Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. | |
| On Wednesday she visited Jerusalem where she met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and held a joint press conference with Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman. | |
| During the conference, she said that Israel must return to the negotiating table immediately. | |