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Condoleezza Rice Postpones Visit to Middle East NewsMax.com Wires WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will postpone a planned visit next week to the Middle East so that she can be accompanied to the region at the end of the month by Defense Secretary Robert Gates at President Bush's request. Rice also has canceled a planned visit next week to Congo. She had been scheduled to become the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the volatile and mineral-rich central African nation in a decade. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday the changes do not connote any reduction in Bush administration commitment to furthering peace between Israel and the Palestinians, or that preoccupation with the Iraq war is crowding out other issues. Bush announced at a news conference Thursday that he was sending Rice and Gates to the Middle East at the beginning of August in a bid to promote peace and lobby support for his Iraq strategy. Although Rice and Gates are expected to make several joint stops among U.S. allies, their itinerary is still in flux. Rice plans to stop in Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah during that trip. Ramallah is the headquarters of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and her visit is intended to bolster his emergency government in the West Bank. Abbas is trying to consolidate power in the West Bank after losing control of the Gaza Strip to Islamic radical rivals. Rice had been due to visit Israel and Ramallah on Tuesday and Wednesday before heading to Accra, Ghana for a U.S.-Africa trade meeting and Portugal, which now holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. Story Continues Below
The State Department said Rice is still expected to visit Ghana and Portugal.
© 2007 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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