WASHINGTON, June 6 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Paris next week to attend a donors conference for Afghanistan and then travel to Israel and the West Bank to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace, the State Department said. Asked why Rice was traveling to the Middle East, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters: "It's really to take stock of where they are, to continue pushing the process forward." "I know there is a lot of political turmoil in Israel," he added, alluding to the political troubles of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is enmeshed in a corruption scandal that could force him to step down. Olmert has denied wrongdoing in the corruption affair in which an American financier alleged in court testimony last month that he gave cash-filled envelopes to the Israeli leader in the days before he became prime minister. Foreign policy analysts say Olmert's difficulties have drastically reduced the chances of achieving U.S. President George W. Bush's goal of securing an outline peace agreement by the end of this year. (Reporting by Arshad Mohammed, editing by David Alexander)
Palestinian youths throw stones at Israeli border police officers during a protest against the construction of Israel's controversial barrier in the West Bank village of Nilleen, near Ramallah, June 4, 2008. ...
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