Jerusalem/Ramallah - The European Union's top diplomat Javier Solana said Thursday in Jerusalem he expects to hear a commitment to the "two-state solution" in an upcoming speech that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to give in Tel Aviv. "I expect the commitment of the Israeli government to the two-state solution in the question regarding the Israeli settlements in the occupied West-Bank", Solana said.
"This is what we expect to hear and I am sure that we will hear something of this nature," Solana said during a visit to Jerusalem. He met with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and opposition leader Tzipi Livni.
Netanyahu is expected to present his government's foreign policy and security and peace policies in a speech on Sunday.
Peres told Solana Thursday that Israel and the US should move on to the second stage of the road map for peace and establish a Palestinian state with provisional borders that would become permanent "in a short span of time," the Jerusalem Post reported.
He also met with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah.
Fayyad told reporters he insisted on "the need to implement the road map", an internationally sponsored plan which calls both parties to take a series of steps ending with the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Solana insisted that the EU position about Jewish settlements "is very clear" and that settlement activities "should stop."
"I hope that with the help of our friends in the region, the US and the EU will be able to create a positive dynamic" for the peace process, Solana said, noting the flurry of activity in the region, including elections in Lebanon and Iran.
He will meet Friday with the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmud Abbas in Amman and the the Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat in Ramallah. Solana will also make a three-day visit to Lebanon and Egypt.
