BC-Rice-Middle East,0322

Rice cuts short trip next week, deferring visits to Egypt, other Mideast countries

By BARRY SCHWEID

AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is deferring an expected trip to Egypt and other Mideast countries next week, confining her travels to a conference in London on assisting the Palestinian Authority.

The Middle East stops were never announced officially, but State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday in providing the revised schedule that there had been “some consideration to going out to the region at this time,” especially since Egypt was to host a meeting between the G-8 economic group and the Arab League.

Egypt last Sunday postponed the conference on promoting democracy in the midst of a dispute with the Bush administration over the jailing of a political activist.

Rice had registered her “very strong concerns” about the detention of Ayman Nour, the leader of an opposition party, when she met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Tuesday in Washington.

Boucher said she would visit the region “at a fairly early date.”

Except for the reference to the postponed Cairo conference, which Rice had not said she would attend, Boucher gave no specific explanation for her deferring the travel expect to say she had met recently in Washington with Gheit and other Arab ministers.

She also will have a chance to confer with Arab officials at a conference beginning Tuesday in London to support the Palestinian Authority as it undergoes reform.

At the same time, she will meet with senior U.N., European and Russian officials in London on “road map” they jointly produced in the hopes it would spur Israel and the Palestinians to hold negotiations on a settlement.

Some 30 delegations are expected to attend the London conference.

AP-ES-02-25-05 1403EST