After Saudi oil talks, Cheney to Israel for peace effort

Cheney met with Saudi King Abdullah on his horse farm Friday for about four and a half hours, and also sat down with Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi, amid rising election-year anger among US voters about soaring energy costs. They discussed "what could be done shorter term, but probably more about what’s necessary to do over the medium and longer term," a senior US official told reporters Saturday on condition of anonymity.

It was not clear whether Cheney had pushed his long-time friend -- aides say they grew close during the 1991 Gulf War when Cheney was defense secretary -- to increase production in a bid to lower record oil prices. But there was "a lot of commonality in their assessment about the structural problems confronted by the global energy market now, and some discussion of probably the way forward," said the official.

Cheney and his host also discussed "Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, energy, Israeli-Palestinian issues, some bilateral questions before us," the official said. "I cant tell you much about the conversations themselves, these are especially confidential and private conversations," the official said as Cheney attended a classified briefing at the US embassy.

Later, Cheney was to head for Jerusalem and a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, followed by a stop Sunday in the West Bank for talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and prime minister Salam Fayyad. The US vice president was to focus in Israel on "ways forward in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism and protect its citizenry," said spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride.

In Ramallah, he was to "reaffirm the president’s commitment to the current efforts towards the two-state solution and efforts to strengthen Palestinian institutions," said McBride. The vice president was in Riyadh on a nine-day trip that has included surprise stops in Iraq and Afghanistan and a visit to Oman. He was scheduled to visit Turkey after his Middle East peace push.

Cheney’s visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories aimed to prop up faltering peace efforts weeks before US President George W. Bush returns to the region in May for the 60th anniversary of the modern state of Israel. Among the challenges on his agenda in Jerusalem and Ramallah: What to do about the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian militant group Hamas and under a tough Israeli blockade. Abbas and Hamas -- which Washington brands a terrorist organization and refuses to engage directly -- have been bitterly divided since the group drove Abbas’s forces from Gaza in June and took control over the territory.

The rivalry has been a key factor in the stalemate on Middle East peace talks since a November US-backed conference in Annapolis, where a deal to revive the negotiations after a seven-year freeze called for Abbas to tighten security and for Israel to freeze settlements. The talks have made almost no progress, with the Palestinians accusing Israel of pressing ahead with several settlement projects and Israel charging that the Palestinians are not doing enough to rein in militants.