The White House has announced that President George W Bush will hold a joint summit with the leaders of Israel and the Palestinians in Jordan next week.
Mr Bush will also meet Arab leaders in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh, in Egypt.
The move follows the decision by the Israeli cabinet at the weekend to narrowly approve the US-backed Middle East peace plan, known as the road map, which envisages the step-by-step creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
It is expected Mr Bush's summit with the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmud Abbas, will take place next Wednesday, a day after the meeting in Egypt.
It will be Mr Bush's most high-profile intervention in Middle East peace efforts and his first face-to-face meeting with Mr Abbas, who took power a month ago.
