US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has delayed a trip to Israel and the West Bank until the end of July, the US State Department said Thursday, according to dpa. The trip scheduled to begin July 16 was postponed because of US President George W Bush's announcement that he wanted to step up US diplomacy in the region and also wanted Defence Secretary Robert Gates to accompany Rice at the end of the month. Rice "decided that it was appropriate to postpone these two stops and combine it with that trip," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. Rice still plans on attending the African Growth and Opportunity Act meeting in Ghana July 18-19 and continuing on with a stop in Portugal, McCormack said. Rice's stop in Lisbon is to attend the planned meeting of the Middle East peace group known as the quartet, which comprises the United Nations, the European Union, the US and Russia. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to attend. McCormack said the exact dates of the Middle East trip had not been set. She has also indefinitely postponed a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
