New York  - The diplomatic group on the Middle East peace process, or quartet, will meet Monday at United Nations headquarters, a few weeks before the change of administration in Washington.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and high-ranking EU officials will attend the meeting under the leadership of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Ban said he has invited several Arab governments to take part in the quartet discussions along with the four principals: the UN, the European Union, the United States and Russia.

Tel Aviv/Gaza  - A top Israeli defence official is expected to meet Sunday in Cairo with an Egyptian intelligence chief for talks about a possible extension of Israel's six-month-old ceasefire with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported.

Amos Gilad, chief of the Israeli Defense Ministry's Security- Diplomatic Bureau, was to meet with Omar Suleiman, head of Egyptian intelligence. Egypt has previously acted as a go-between for Israel and the Palestinian militant groups.

New York  - The United Nations Security Council is considering a new Mideast peace resolution presented Saturday by envoys from the United States and Russia.

After a private meeting of the Security Council, Zalmay Khalilzad, US Ambassador to the United Nations, said that the 15-member decision-making body should "recognize the progress that has been made towards the goal of achieving a two-state solution."

He emphasized that "the focus has to be on the principles, not on details" of the long-stymied peace process.

The resolution could come up for consideration as early as Tuesday, when leading foreign ministers are expected to be in attendance at the Security Council.

New York  - The diplomatic group on the Middle East peace process, or quartet, will meet Monday at UN headquarters, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Friday.

"It is a year which I hope will bear fruit in the Middle East," Ban said in a conference in Geneva announcing the quartet meeting in New York.

"Somewhat below the radar, Israelis and Palestinians have been engaged in direct, intensive negotiations, and have created trust and a framework where none existed only two years ago," he said.

Jerusalem  - Arab Israeli lawmakers reacted with outrage Friday to remarks by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, in which she said the "national solution" for Israel's Arab citizens would be a future Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

"These (things) have been said before, but this time it is more severe because they are said by a candidate for the premiership," Ahmed Tibi, of the United Arab List
(UAL) which has four mandates in the 120-seat Knesset, told Israel Radio.

Calling the remarks "painful," he accused Livni of pandering to right-wing voters.

Gaza City - Upping the rhetoric against the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, Israeli leaders hinted Tuesday that a strike against the Islamist movement in the salient could be launched in order to end rocket attacks on southern Israel.

"The state of Israel cannot live under these conditions in the long term," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said while touring towns and villages along the Gaza border, which are frequent targets of missiles militants fire from the strip.