Israel names immigration official as envoy to US

JERUSALEM, Oct 4 (Reuters) Israel named Salai Meridor, a former head of a quasi-governmental agency that promotes Jewish immigration, as its new ambassador to the United States today.

Meridor stepped down as head of the Jewish Agency for Israel last year after a six-year tenure in which he was an outspoken advocate of settling Jews in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories captured in war and where Palestinians seek a state.

Meridor will replace current Ambassador Danny Ayalon when he end his four-year term in Washington, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said in a statement. Israel's Army Radio said the handover was expected to take place in January.

Meridor's appointment to the key diplomatic post comes at a crucial stage for Israel's relations with its US ally.

Israel looks to Washington for guidance on peacemaking with the Palestinians and on the Iranian nuclear programme, which the Jewish state, believed to have the region's only atomic arsenal, considers a major threat. Tehran denies having hostile designs.

Meridor's brother, Dan Meridor, is a scion of the Israeli right-wing political movement Likud and a former cabinet minister.

Reuters DKA GC2251