国际英语新闻：Australian FM says Mideast peace facing difficult stage

AMMAN, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said Sunday that the Middle East peace process is facing a " difficult and challenging" stage.

In a joint press conference held in Amman with his Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh, Rudd stressed that the upcoming stage is one of difficult challenges, urging the Palestinians and the Israelis to resort to peace path and remove obstacles.

The Australian official expressed his country's support for efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East.

"We are looking forward to a peace process that will lead to the creation of an independent and viable Palestinian state that lives side by side with Israel," said Rudd, who was in Jordan on a Middle East tour.

He said Australia rejects the Israeli settlements as they represent an obstacle against the peace process.

At the press conference, Judeh said there are actions at all levels to make a progress, calling for investing the factor of time and intensifying efforts to achieve the Middle East peace.

Stressing the Israeli settlement activities as illegal and illegitimate, the minister also underlined the urgency for negotiations to focus the final status issues.

Judeh told reporters that the Arab peace initiative follow-up committee will hold a meeting in a few days in Cairo to discuss latest developments regarding direct peace talks following Israel' s refusal to halt settlement activities.

Last week, Washington conceded that it had given up its efforts to persuade Israel to freeze its construction of settlements in West Bank, which is considered as a change of approach to handle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.