UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that key parties trying to promote Mideast peace will meet in Italy later this month.
Ban gave no details on the date and place but said he expects the Quartet -- the U.N., the U.S., the European Union and Russia -- to discuss next steps to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace.
High-level Quartet meetings are usually attended by foreign ministers. Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight major industrialized nations are already scheduled to meet in Trieste June 26-27. The G8 includes the U.S., Russia, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada.
Ban also praised President Barack Obama's speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, calling it "historic" and a "fantastic statement which has been widely accepted and appreciated by the whole world, including Middle East leaders."
Obama's administration has been pushing to increase efforts to achieve "comprehensive peace" between Israel, an independent Palestinian state and the broader Arab world. But Arab countries, which launched a collective peace initiative in 2002, have been reluctant to take additional steps without first getting concessions from Israel.
Israel's new government has shown little willingness to make concessions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far refused to concede to U.S. demands that he stop settlement construction in the West Bank and commit to the creation of a Palestinian state -- a key demand in the Arab peace initiative, which was relaunched in 2007.
Ban was asked at a news conference whether the U.N. would take the lead in reconstructing Gaza following Israel's 22-day ground and air offensive that ended in January, as U.S. envoy George Mitchell is proposing.
He said the issue will be discussed at the upcoming Quartet meeting, "but as a matter of principle, I am ready, I will always stand ready to do what I can, including leading the reconstruction of Gaza."
"But this requires requires co-ordination, and also support from all the parties concerned, including the Quartet principals," Ban said.
The secretary-general said he has raised Israel's refusal to allow construction materials into Gaza with the country's president and defence minister -- unsuccessfully. He said it will be "a key issue" when he meets Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman for the first time next week.
