CAIRO -- U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright left Cairo for home on Wednesday after a Middle East trip that also took her to Israel and Palestinian-ruled areas.
She had held separate talks in Cairo with President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara, who told reporters later the meeting had cleared the air for new efforts to revive peace talks with Israel.Albright repeated pledges that the top U.S. foreign policy priority in Clinton's last months in office is to bring Israel and the Palestinians to a permanent agreement on borders, Jerusalem, refugees and Jewish settlers.
Clinton hopes to arrange a summit meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat but Albright says the groundwork is not yet laid.
"This is a rare opportunity to reach an accord and we can't let it slip away. President Clinton and I are prepared...to roll up our sleeves and do everything to facilitate the process," Albright told a news conference in Cairo.