Both sides in the Middle East conflict must build in the next few months on the momentum from Israel's withdrawal plans and Palestinian reforms if they are to achieve peace, international mediators said on Monday. Officials of the "quartet" - the United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia - met after a Moscow parade marking the end of World War Two in what Russia's foreign minister called a symbolic moment for Middle East peace efforts. A February cease-fire agreed between Israel and the Palestinians has raised hopes that sputtering efforts by the quartet to broker peace might finally bring fruit.
Israel has pledged to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank in the summer while the Palestinian Authority has held elections and promised reforms to its security forces.
"We emphasise that this is a hopeful and promising moment for Palestinians and Israelis, they both deserve the full support of the international community," said UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, reading a statement to reporters.
"The quartet urges both parties to take steps to fulfil their obligations under the Road Map," he added, referring to a programme for peace adopted in 2003 that has largely been ignored amid widespread violence. As preliminary steps under the Road Map, Israel pledged to halt settlement building on occupied land and the Palestinians promised to halt militant attacks.
The quartet welcomed steps from the two sides that suggested these conditions might begin to be fulfilled. "This is a time when we must seize the opportunity, an opportunity presented by the Palestinian elections and the new Palestinian authority, and by the coming Israeli withdrawal," said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"When we talk about these next four or five months, it is not because we do not have a bigger vision, it is because we see that we have an opportunity."
Rice joined Annan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana and External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner at the meeting.
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