Palestinian Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr arrived in Amman Friday for talks with Jordanian officials on the prospects of lifting the financial siege imposed on the Palestinian areas and resuming peace talks with Israel, Palestinian Authority ambassador Atallah Khairy said. Abu Amr, on his first official visit to Jordan, is scheduled to meet on Saturday with Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit and Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah Khatib "to brief them on the latest developments in the Palestinian territories and the outcome of the latest Palestinian contacts with Israel," Khairy said, according to dpa. Khatib was expected to brief his Palestinian counterpart on his meeting in Cairo on Thursday with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. The two Arab foreign ministers were directed by the Arab League to meet with Livni to relay to her the text of the Arab peace plan that was readopted by Arab leaders in Riyadh at the end of March. The Palestinian foreign minister is due to leave Amman on Sunday for Brussels for talks with European Union foreign ministers to rally their support for "lifting the siege on Palestinians and finding the mechanism for reinvigorating the peace process," Khairy said. Abu Amr is an independent Palestinian who joined the national unity government in February. The Jordanian government has so far refrained from establishing official contacts with Palestinian ministers belonging to the governing radical Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. King Abdullah II is due to visit Ramallah on Sunday for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas but it is unclear so far whether he plans to meet with Hamas leaders. -- SPA
