ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE ( 2008-03-27 20:52:39 ) :
US President George W. Bush has invited Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas to the White House in a bid to advance the faltering Middle East peace process, a US official said Thursday.
The move was part of a continuing effort “to work with the Palestinians and the Israelis as well as other countries in the region in realizing a Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel,” said spokesman for the national Security Council Gordon Johndroe.
Abbas has been invited to visit around May 1, although the “details are still being worked out,” Johndroe told reporters as Bush flew to Ohio to give an address on the US “war on terror.”
A senior Palestinian official said on Wednesday that the US consul in Jerusalem, Jacob Walles, had transmitted the invitation to Abbas to travel to Washington on April 24.
The invitation comes amid a flurry of diplomatic efforts to try to resuscitate the flagging peace process, following a high-profile conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November which sought to kick-start the talks.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heads Friday to the Middle East for the second time in three weeks in a bid to revive peace talks suspended by the Israeli and Palestinian leaders since March 2.
Rice will hold three days of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and with Abbas. US Vice President Dick Cheney also visited Israel and the West Bank earlier this week.
Abbas froze negotiations in protest at massive Israeli army raids on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip aimed at stopping rocket fire from the territory.
The Israeli military incursions killed more than 130 Palestinians, including civilians and children.
The two sides vowed in November to seek a comprehensive peace deal including an agreement on a separate Palestinian state before Bush leaves office in January 2009.
Land of Prophets 