Mideast peace promoters sharply criticise Bush administration

[Shallah Kali]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1521&e=8&u=/afp/mideast_peace_geneva

The authors of the unofficial Geneva Initiative for peace between Israel and the Palestinians criticised the United States, with one of the top Israeli initiators admitting he wanted the Democrats to win November's US presidential race.

"I hope personally that there will be a new president in the United States of America because that's the best interest of the state of Israel," former Israeli Labour Party politician and parliament speaker Avraham Burg said.

"I would like the Democrats to take over and a Democrat administration to pick up at the point where (ex-president Bill) Clinton left the region," he told journalists during a conference in the Swiss village of Caux.

Burg and his Palestinian counterpart on the Geneva Initiative, former information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, called for a revival of US political involvement in the Middle East conflict.