RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) — US Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Ramallah on Sunday for talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas as part of an Easter weekend effort to revive moribund Middle East peace talks.
The vice president helicoptered to the Muqata compound in the political capital of the occupied West Bank around 1130 GMT for talks with the moderate Abbas and his prime minister Salam Fayyad.
Security was tight, with Palestinian police blocking off streets within a radius of several kilometres (miles) around the Muqata, causing massive traffic jams, AFP correspondents said.
Cheney was to hold talks with the Western-backed Palestinian leadership after meeting senior Israeli officials upon his arrival in the region late Saturday to renew Washington's efforts to secure a peace deal before President George W. Bush's term ends in January 2009.
Cheney arrived in Israel after stops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Oman, and Saudi Arabia on a nine-day diplomatic foray that will also take him to Turkey before he returns to Washington on Tuesday.
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