Clinton says would be active in Mideast peace

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton would be "fully engaged and involved" in the Middle East as U.S. president and would maintain a full-time presence there to spur the peace process, the New York senator told Reuters.

Clinton, whose husband former President Bill Clinton took a personal but ultimately unsuccessful role in negotiating a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, said the administration of George W. Bush had committed "sins of omission and commission" by not being more engaged.

"I believe that it's important for the United States to maintain an active and involved role," she said in an interview on Sunday.

"I think one of the reasons why we are seeing a very dangerous situation there now is because the Bush administration backed off from staying involved and, where they were involved, much of their advice and proposals were counterproductive."

Clinton, who is competing with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama to be the Democratic presidential nominee in the November election, has argued that she is stronger on foreign policy and has a better chance of beating presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, a senator from Arizona.

Clinton said it was up to Israelis and Palestinians to determine what role in the peace process should be played by Hamas, an Islamist group officially committed to Israel's destruction, which won elections in Gaza in 2006 but seized control of the strip last summer amid factional fighting.

She said the next president would be able to get a better sense of what needed to be done to bring peace to the region.

"Once we get back to a president who is fully engaged and involved and doesn't walk away or impose unworkable conditions, we will, you know, have a much better idea about what is part of bringing the parties to some resolution," she said.

Asked whether she would be "fully engaged and involved," Clinton said, "Yes."

FULL TIME PRESENCE

President Clinton's 2000 effort to broker a peace agreement ended in failure and a violent Palestinian uprising ensued.

The former first lady often tells audiences on the campaign trail she would make her husband a goodwill ambassador to foreign countries if she wins, but she declined to say in the interview if the Middle East would be one of his destinations.

"I don't know (whether) that would be where he would be sent," she said.

"I think you need a full-time presence," she said, adding the absence of one was a key problem with the diplomacy of Bush and his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice.

"We haven't had a full-time presence and everything stops unless Condi Rice is there, and I think that's a mistake," Clinton said.

"That seems to be a pattern in much of their diplomacy, and I don't think that's particularly productive."

Foreign policy analysts and Arab officials have often criticized Bush for what they regard as his neglect of the conflict and his failure to empower a special envoy to focus on the issue as Dennis Ross did under President Clinton.

Israel announced plans on Sunday to ease some restrictions on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, responding to calls by Rice, who is visiting the region, to take steps to bolster peace talks.

Bush launched a peace effort in November with the goal of achieving an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement by the end of this year, but Middle East analysts are deeply skeptical that it will succeed.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Jerusalem; Editing by Doina Chiacu)