Many Arabs say recent violence in Gaza and Israel is placing the Middle East peace process in jeopardy again. The process is under review ahead of a planned Arab League Summit, set for later this month in Damascus.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says a peace agreement with the Palestinians will not necessarily be concluded by the end of this year.

Scores of people staged demonstrations in the Gaza Strip against the U.S.-hosted Mideast peace conference while the leader of the Hamas government in Gaza insisted that the summit is "doomed to failure" and said the group will not lay down its arms.

Special envoy to Mideast peace process Blair has met 21 countries diplomats on Friday to give momentum to the process. Brown, British premier, has appointed at UN envoy to represent Mideast peace plan to be finalized this year.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has postponed a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that was scheduled for Thursday in the occupied West Bank. VOA's Jim Teeple has details from our Jerusalem bureau.

A high-level investigative panel sharply criticized Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for "severe failure" in his handling of last summer's war in Lebanon a potentially fatal blow to his political survival.

The new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has called the crises in the Middle East the most important challenge of our time. Khalilzad, the former U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, spoke to reporters after his first UN Security Council meeting. He took up his post on April 23, succeeding John Bolton, who left last December.