Middle East "quartet" to meet in London next week, UN says

(dpa) - The four-member diplomatic group for Middle East peace plans to meet in London May 2 to pursue efforts aimed at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, the United Nations said Wednesday.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will chair the quartet meeting to review "all aspects" of the peace process launched in Annapolis, Maryland, last year by he White House, which was attended by several Arab governments. The UN, the European Union, the US and Russia form the quartet.
On May 2, the ad hoc liaison committee, a sub-group of the quartet, will also meet in London to assess progress made by the Palestinians in developing their institutions and economic development, said Angela Kane, the UN assistant secretary general for political affairs.
Kane told a public meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday that the Israeli-Palestinian talks are "in the most intensive set of negotiations on final status issues" in the past eight years.
"The significance of this should not be underestimated, but neither should the grave risks to the process be overlooked," she said in making the monthly briefing on the situation in the Middle East.
US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters following Kane's briefing that the council had taken note of some "recent progress" made by the Palestinian Authority and Israel's defence ministry on the situation in the West Bank.
Kane said the fighting in the past month between the two sides had been tense. She said a total of 69 Palestinians have been killed, including 15 children, by attacks from the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Attacks by Palestinian militants killed six Israelis and injured 17 others.
The UN has been condemning attacks on the civilians by the IDF as well as the rocketing of Israel by Palestinian militants.
"We are deeply alarmed at prospects of further intensification of the violence, given the terrible implications for civilians and the threat against security of all parties - the Palestinians, Israel and Egypt," Kane said. She urged all parties to work with Egypt to restore calm in Gaza Strip.