Condoleezza Rice reportedly will meet in Japan with Ehud Olmert next week to press him on peace talks.
Israeli media quoted government officials as saying Friday that the U.S. secretary of state would meet with Israel’s prime minister to allay her concerns about stalled peace talks with the Palestinians.
The Bush administration has made a priority of achieving the outlines of a peace agreement by the end of its term, in 11 months. But Olmert has said a peace deal is unlikely by the end of 2008.
Rice will be in the region to discuss North Korea talks; Olmert will be in Japan to discuss business ties with that country and to press the case of isolating Iran to obstruct its suspected nuclear weapons program.
