NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer will visit Israel at the weekend and discuss the crisis in Gaza, a NATO spokesman said on Friday according to Reuters. De Hoop Scheffer will meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak during the visit on Sunday and Monday, NATO said. The NATO spokesman said the visit, which will follow a Jan. 9-11 stop in Jordan, was scheduled long before the current Gaza crisis although the subject was expected to be discussed. De Hoop Scheffer said on Saturday the 26-nation Western military alliance could help stabilise the Middle East if a broad peace deal was eventually reached, but that remained a distant prospect. The NATO chief told Dutch radio that deployment of a NATO peace force would be conditional on Israel and Arab states requesting an international military presence to implement the peace.