U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has vowed to do whatever it takes to get the so-called road map for Middle East peace back on track.
"I think all the members of the Quartet are worried about this latest development," he said Monday, referring to the sponsors of the European Union, United Nations, Russia and the United States.
"We were all hopeful that there was a new opening, a new opportunity that should be exploited to reenergize the process, and we are all going to do whatever we can with both sides to get the process back on track, and to give the new Palestinian Authority as much help as we can with its own reform process, and particularly the restructuring of the security forces," he told reporters on his return to U.N. World Headquarters in New York,
While Annan was touring Indian Ocean tsunami sites and attending the Small Island Developing States conference in Mauritius, Israel broke off contacts with the Palestinians on the eve of the inauguration of the new Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
The Quartet's plan calls for parallel and reciprocal steps leading to two States living in peace by year's end.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
