Merkel and Blair to stage Middle East security talks

By Iain Rogers and Sylvia Westall

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and peace envoy Tony Blair will jointly organize a Middle East security conference to be held at the beginning of June in Berlin, the German Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

"The aim of the conference will be to discuss the strengthening of the Palestinian police force and justice apparatus," the ministry spokeswoman said.

Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported earlier on Friday that all European Union members, several Arab states, the Middle East quartet of Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations as well as Palestinian and Israeli officials will be invited to the talks.

The paper, citing two German government sources it declined to identify by name, said the goal of the conference was to help Palestinians prepare for the day they took over responsibility for their own state.

The ministry spokeswoman declined to say who the participants would be.

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung said nations including Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates would play an important role at the talks and Israeli and Palestinian officials had already pledged to attend.

A U.S. official said in Washington that the June conference was not a "peace conference" but would deal with police, judiciary and law enforcement issues.

U.S.-backed peace talks launched in November have been bogged down by tensions over Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Israel's reluctance to remove checkpoints and an upsurge in violence between the two sides.