A Middle East summit bringing together Israel’s prime minister and the Palestinian president with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice is due to start today.

Talks on forming a Palestinian national unity government were suspended because Fatah was not serious about resolving the violent crisis threatening to tear Palestinians apart, a senior official of the militant Hamas group alleged today.

ISRAELI Vice Premier Shimon Peres yesterday said the national unity government Palestinians are trying to establish would be nothing more than a “facade” because Hamas militants aren’t interested in peace.

British Prime Minster Tony Blair today pledged to use his last months in office to pursue peace in the Middle East – after hearing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agree to meet the Israeli Prime Minister.

THE largest Sunni Arab bloc in Iraq’s parliament said yesterday it was suspending its participation in the legislature until a kidnapped colleague was released, dealing a blow to efforts to involve the disaffected minority in the political process.

Sectarian violence has forced about 100,000 families across Iraq to flee their homes, a top Iraqi official said. At least 17 people have been killed in fighting.

Pro-Syrian Omar Karami was reappointed Lebanese premier today – a move destined to increase the protests in the streets of Beirut.

LEBANON President Emile Lahoud looks set to ask outgoing pro-Syrian prime minister Omar Karami to form a government, a step sure to anger the anti-Syrian opposition who pressured him to resign in the first place.