Powell attempting to repair road map

US Secretary of State Colin Powell is preparing to meet in Jordan with leaders of Russia, the European Union and the United Nations in an effort to repair the tattered road map for peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians, US and diplomatic sources said yesterday.

The meeting will be held in Aqaba, where President Bush reached agreement last week with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to proceed with the peacemaking blueprint that had been prepared jointly by the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia. The tentative date is June 22, coinciding with a World Economic Forum at the Jordanian seaport, but final arrangements have not been made.

Powell will be joined by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. Senior European Union officials also were invited. The group, known as a Quartet, devised the road map that calls for an end to 33 months of conflict, establishment of a Palestinian state by 2005 and other measures designed to settle the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.