US President Barack Obama has thrown his weight behind Arab-Israeli peacemaking by sending envoy George Mitchell to the region with a brief to ''engage vigorously'' to achieve real progress.
Mr Obama, promising to be more actively engaged in Middle East diplomacy than his predecessor, George W.Bush, set the tone for the trip after meeting Senator Mitchell, who is to visit Israel, the Palestinian West Bank and Arab states.
In the short run, the trip is aimed at bolstering a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip after a three-week Israeli military offensive, and tackling the humanitarian crisis there.
Mr Obama said, ''The charge that Senator Mitchell has is to engage vigorously and consistently in order for us to achieve genuine progress.
''It is not something that we're going to be able to do overnight.
''But I am absolutely confident that if the United States is engaged in a consistent way, and in an early fashion, that we can make genuine progress.''
State Department spokesman Robert Wood said that during the trip, from January 26 to February 3, Senator Mitchell would also travel to Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Europe.
Mr Wood did not rule out Senator Mitchell travelling to the Gaza Strip, where Islamist Hamas fighters and Israel fought a 22-day war that killed at least 1300 Palestinians before ending in a truce on January 18.
The new Obama Administration ''will actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as Israel and its neighbours'', Mr Wood said.
''Mitchell will work to consolidate the ceasefire in Gaza, establish an effective and credible anti-smuggling and interdiction regime to prevent the rearming of Hamas, facilitate the reopening of border crossings.''
The envoy would also ''develop an effective response to the immediate humanitarian needs of the Palestinians in Gaza and eventual reconstruction, and reinvigorate the peace process''.
A State Department official said Senator Mitchell would make his first stop in Cairo, then travel to Israel and the West Bank today and Friday for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Senator Mitchell was also expected to visit Amman for talks with Jordanian leaders before visiting Riyadh on Sunday. He is due to stop in Paris and London before he returns to the US.
Mr Wood said Senator Mitchell would ''not have contact with Hamas''.
Although Mr Obama and his predecessor share the same hard line toward Hamas, the new President and his secretary of state named a special envoy in a move analysts said signalled constant and focused high-level involvement.
Senator Mitchell, 75, said he did not ''underestimate the difficulty'' of his assignment when he was named special Middle East envoy last week by Mr Obama. AFP