Ahern meets Palestinian Foreign Minister in Dublin

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has held talks with Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath about the stalled Middle East peace process.

Speaking after the meeting in Dublin, Mr Ahern pledged to use Ireland’s presidency of the EU to act as a fair and impartial mediator in the peace process.

"The Middle East is one of those areas where you have to be even-handed, because the opportunity of being of any value to the process is only by trying to understand both sides and get both sides to understand the opposing the positions," he said.