McCain promises personal engagement in Middle East

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Republican candidate John McCain said on Wednesday he would devote "personal deep engagement" to the Middle East peace process if he were elected president.

In response to a question after a speech to the World Affairs Council in Los Angeles, McCain indicated he would have a much more hands-on attitude toward Middle East peacemaking than President George W. Bush.

"I would devote every effort including personal deep engagement and involvement in the Palestinian-Israeli peace process," McCain said. "It is too important ... for us not to give it the highest priority."

McCain, who has clinched the Republican nomination for the November presidential election, visited Israel this month as part of a Middle East fact-finding tour.

For most of his seven years as president, Bush had little personal involvement in Middle East peacemaking until November 2007 when the United States hosted a conference in Annapolis, Maryland. At that meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged to try to forge a peace deal by the end of 2008.

Bush made his first presidential visit to Israel and the West Bank in January. He hopes for an agreement on Palestinian statehood before leaving office next January.

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; writing by Deborah Charles; editing by Mohammad Zargham)