The Middle East quartet met Tuesday on the sidelines of the international conference on Iraq in a renewed bid to revive the peace process following the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. "We are all encouraged. We reaffirmed our determination to work with the Palestinian leadership to support the January 9 election" to choose a successor to Arafat, UN chief Kofi Annan told reporters after the meeting. "We must give them all the necessary support. There is an opportunity to... move ahead with the roadmap" peace plan. "We believe the Israeli government is also ready," the secretary general said, also referring to discussions with the Israelis to release frozen Palestinian funds. "We will send election monitors, ensure international support to see they get the necessary budgetary support," Annan said. The brief quartet meeting came a day after US Secretary of State Colin Powell held talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on his first trip to the region in 18 months, before heading to Egypt's resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
| Everybody's all hopeful now. This'll last until the next bus boom. |
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