Greek foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis is to hold a meeting with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in March or in the beginning of April, Greek daily Ta Nea reported.

A statement on the Greek foreign ministry website on January 30 2009 said that Bakoyannis had spoken on the phone with Clinton. "Bakoyannis wished her US counterpart all the best with the difficult mission she has undertaken in this demanding and crucial international juncture," the statement said.

Their conversation was held "in an excellent climate" and they discussed issues such as the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, of which Greece currently holds the rotating chairmanship, as well as developments in the Middle East, and other regional issues of mutual interest.

In a speech on January 29 to the Greek parliament's committee on foreign policy, Bakoyannis said: "An additional critical parameter that will impact international developments is the policy that US president Obama's administration follows".

 The first critical decisions and actions by the new US president "come up to the expectations created by his visionary and at the same time realistic and resolute political discourse," Bakoyannis said.

"I am referring in particular to his immediate action with regard to the Middle East issue, which - in the wake of the recent tragic and dangerous developments in Gaza and in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute in general - requires vigilance and urgent attention from the international community."

The situation in Gaza remained extremely fragile, she said.

"We do not yet have a truce agreement between the immediately involved parties. Rather, we have a peculiar situation of two unilateral ceasefire decisions that might be overturned at any time."

Bakoyannis described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as still tragic and exceedingly urgent. The flow of international humanitarian aid was problematic because the crossing points into Gaza remained for the most part closed, she said.

"The combination of insecurity, misery, pain and anger is - unfortunately - fertile ground for cultivating extremist views and behaviour."

It made inter-Palestinian reconciliation even more difficult to achieve; reconciliation that the Palestinian Authority and president Mahmoud Abbas "believe in and are pursuing," Bakoyannis said.

"The disparity of approaches to the crisis that we see in the Arab world makes the situation even more complicated. This, in turn, unavoidably impacts the prospects for the reopening of the stalled peace process that began 14 months ago - in November 2007 - in Annapolis."

In this exceedingly complex environment of crisis and multiple conflicting interests inside and outside the Middle East, Greece - as a neighbouring country and member of the EU - was following a consistent and active policy, she said.

"A policy of substantial assistance in the efforts, on the one hand, to confront the crisis and, on the other, to shape the conditions that would breathe new life into the prospects for peace in the region. I want to stress that this can be achieved only based on the co-existence of two independent and secure states - an Israeli state and a Palestinian state," Bakoyannis said.

"Our traditional relations of friendship with the Arab world; consistent, sincere and constructive co-operation with Israel; the fact that as a country we have no special interest beyond stability and peace; and, of course, our significant presence in the region - whether through the UNIFIL mission, or our rapid response with significant humanitarian aid for Gaza, or our economic and business presence - have combined to have Greece accepted as a trusted collocutor with its own special weight in the Middle East," she told the committee.