Rice's "Coalition of the Builders"

Rice said the US was depending on the grouping of "moderate" Arab allies in order to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

"The meeting will discuss reviving the stalemate peacemaking drive in the Middle East and possible Arab practical initiatives to resume negotiations for a final, comprehensive settlement," Egyptian diplomatic sources told IslamOnline.net, requesting anonymity.

Rice will meet with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -- Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar.

Rice, on her first trip to the region since the end of Israel's 33-day onslaught on Lebanon, held talks with Saudi King Abdullah in the western city of Jeddah late Monday, October 2.

They discussed developments in the region, especially the latest developments in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq.

A Saudi official said Iran's nuclear program was also discussed, with the issue set to dominate Rice's tour.

Washington needs the support of its Arab allies, including Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Gulf states, to lay more pressures on Iran especially in view of sanctions opposition from fellow permanent members Russia and China.

Coalition of Builders

"You could call it the coalition of the builders, not just a coalition of the willing...as opposed to the coalition of the destroyers," said Zelikow.

Arab and Egyptian political circles were whispering that Rice would try to re-launch her new Middle East initiative which was killed stone dead by the fiasco Israeli war on Lebanon.

Rice had expected a new Middle East to emerge from the 33-day Israel-Hizbullah war.

"It is time for a new Middle East," she told a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

"It is time to say to those that don’t want a different kind of Middle East that we will prevail. They will not."

Commenting on the Cairo meeting en route to the Middle East, Rice said the US was depending on the grouping of "moderate" Arab allies in order to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Philip Zelikow, a senior advisor to Rice, laid out the State Department's thinking about the region in a keynote speech last month.

He stressed the importance of a coalition of the US, Europe, Israel and "moderate" Arab states in dealing with what Washington sees as threats to stability in the Middle East, particularly Iran, Syria and the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance groups.

"You could call it the coalition of the builders, not just a coalition of the willing. The coalition of the builders as opposed to the coalition of the destroyers."

Rice's regional tour is partly intended to shore up Arab allies while dealing with the shared perception of the extremist threat from Iran, Hizbullah and Iraq's sectarian chaos.

But because of severe ideological differences within the Bush administration, Rice is not expected to unveil big initiatives, according to the Financial Times.

Pro-western Arab states have emerged weakened from the Israeli war on Lebanon.

The unusual criticism from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt of Lebanese resistance group has exposed them to mounting attacks at home.

Arab public opinion was outraged by Israel's massive offensive and the Bush administration's refusal to call for an early ceasefire.

For the past five years, the Bush administration has been championing a democracy drive in the Mideast East.

A December Gallup poll, conducted in 10 nations that comprise 80 percent of the world's Muslim population, found that an overwhelming majority of Muslims strongly doubted the US is trying to establish democracy in the Middle East.

Oil, protecting Israel and dominating the region were seen as US goals, according to the survey.

In what has been seen as enforcing the perception, the Bush administration spearheaded an international aid freeze against the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority since the resistance group Hamas was voted to the helm of power.