The US will send a group of intelligence and security officials to the Middle East to co-ordinate the implementation of the "roadmap" for Israeli-Palestinian peace, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said last night.
The team, the initial core of which will be about seven-to 10-people strong, is expected to leave for the region in the coming days and base itself in Jerusalem as President George W. Bush presses Israel and the Palestinians to put the roadmap into action, officials said.
Mr Powell said members of the group were being chosen now and would have a "coordination role" in implementing the steps in the roadmap which lays out measures to be taken for a Palestinian state to be created by 2005.
"We see it as a small co-ordinating group that would be coordinating our efforts ... to make sure that we are talking to one another and we are getting started," a senior State Department official said.
The team's arrival is expected after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presents the roadmap to his cabinet for approval following his announcement last night that he accepted the plan, albeit with serious reservations.
That announcement was part of a carefully coordinated diplomatic dance, negotiated over the past three days between senior US and Israeli officials which required Washington to first release a statement saying it recognized Israel's concerns and would act on them.
In that statement - issued in the names of Mr Powell and national security advisor Ms Condoleezza Rice - the US said Israel's concerns are "real" and pledged to "address them fully and seriously."
Mr Sharon's acceptance of the roadmap came just hours later. Despite the breakthrough - which may lead to a three-way summit between Mr Bush, Mr Sharon and new Palestinian prime minister Mr Mahmud Abbas - Mr Powell predicted difficulties ahead.