Spain strongly supports US plans to hold a conference aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conference later this year, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said, according to dpa. Moratinos offered Spain's support for the Middle East conference during a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Monday but did not say whether his country would attend the US-hosted gathering. Israeli, Palestinian and some Arab countries are expected to attend the conference outside Washington in Annapolis, Maryland, but no dates are set. Rice has stepped up the effort to move forward on the peace agreement and the establishment of a Palestinian state and will visit the region later this week. "We support the efforts of the United States in general, and the secretary of state in particular, because we believe she is very involved and determined to get to a solution and a way out of a crisis that has lasted so many years," Moratinos told reporters after meeting with Rice.
