Beckett heads to West Asia with tough task

London, Feb 5: British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett arrives in the West Asia today to gauge prospects for progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, but a backdrop of raging factional violence will make it an uphill task.

Fighting between rival Hamas and Fatah groups is intensifying and talks about a unity government are deadlocked.

The Israeli army continues to battle Palestinian gunmen in the occupied West Bank.

Beckett will nonetheless be hoping to glean positive signals for international peace brokers and Prime Minister Tony Blair.

''We want to impose on both sides that the West Asia peace process is the main game in town and a negotiated two-state solution is the best way forward,'' said a Foreign Office official ahead of Beckett's visit.

The so-called Quartet of West Asia peace negotiators -- the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia -- drew up a ''road map'' in 2003 for steps by Israel and the Palestinians leading to two states living side by side.

But there was little progress towards the targets and last year the Islamic militant group Hamas defeated the once-dominant Fatah in Palestinian elections. Hamas has since struggled to govern under crippling Western sanctions.

On Friday the Quartet met in Washington and backed a fresh US push to revive Israeli-Palestinian talks, but disagreed over the US policy of isolating Hamas.

Beckett is expected to talk to key figures in government on both sides during her visit, including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but will not break from the current policy of boycotting Hamas.

''They (Hamas) know what they have to do for the international community to engage with them: renounce violence, recognise Israel and all previous agreements including the roadmap,'' the official said.

Clashes between Hamas and Fatah groups killed at least 17 people on Friday as Hamas overran compounds used by Abbas's forces and two major universities were set ablaze.

Blair's unswerving support for the US-led war in Iraq, and his government's reluctance to call for an early halt to last year's war in Lebanon has weakened its sway in the region, say some analysts.

''Britain may be in a position to help (in the West Asia), but Tony Blair is not. He does not have the credibility in the region to be an honest broker,'' said Nadim Shehadi, a West East expert at British foreign affairs think-tank Chatham House.

Reuters