UN chief quartet revives Mideast peace drive

United Nations, Jan 25: U N Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wants a meeting next week of the quartet of Middle East negotiators to breathe new life into the Arab-Israeli peace process, a top aide said today.

Ban sees the February 2 meeting in Washington of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia as ''an important opportunity to chart a way forward for re-energizing the peace process,'' said Ibrahim Gambari, the U N undersecretary-general for political affairs.

''None of us can afford another year like the last one in Lebanon and the Middle East,'' Gambari said in briefing the 15-nation U N Security Council on regional developments.

Last year was marked by a 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, a Palestinian election dominated by Hamas militants, internal Palestinian conflict and political disarray in Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

Ban took over the U N leadership on January 1, succeeding Kofi Annan, and has been searching for ways to overcome the many obstacles on the path to peace, Gambari told the council.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh and senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called today for direct talks in hopes of reaching a peace deal within a time-frame of about two years.

REUTERS