UN Plans Middle East and Iraq Conferences in September

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon plans to call a meeting on the future of Iraq as well as a session of the Quartet mediators on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a U.N. official said on Thursday.

The meetings are tentatively scheduled for the weekend of Sept. 22-23, a day before a summit on the environment and two days before the annual parade of kings, presidents, prime and foreign ministers address the 62nd session of the General Assembly.

On Iraq, Ban has spoken to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who planned to attend the U.N. assembly session, about the conference.

The meeting will discuss the International Compact for Iraq, a U.N. sponsored initiative to provide reconstruction aid in return for democratic reforms and a future U.N. role in the country, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

U.S. President George W. Bush has made known he would hold a Middle East peace conference later in the year but has not given a date.

Ban several months ago conducted a conference at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to raise money, mainly from U.S. coalition partners, and solicit offers of billions of dollars of debt forgiveness, such as from Saudi Arabia. The secretary-general met Saudi Arabia's foreign affairs minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, at U.N. headquarters on Thursday.

The U.N.-organized International Compact with Iraq is dependent on conditions and benchmarks, including reforms aimed at giving Iraq's minority Sunnis Arabs a greater role in relation to the majority Shiites.

The Iraq meeting is also expected to discuss the recent Security Council authorization for the world body to expand its political role, including promoting reconciliation between its rival factions and dialogue with neighboring countries.

U.S. and British officials have denied that their aim is to offload Iraq's political problems onto the United Nations, then pull their forces out. But they want the U.N. to take a shot at peace, especially in recruiting help from neighboring nations.

Some of the same leaders will attend a meeting of the Quartet, expected on Sept. 23. This group, which last met in July in Lisbon, includes top diplomats from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair as their envoy.

It has been years since Israel and the Palestinians last discussed issues at the root of the conflict -- final borders of a Palestinian state, the return of refugees and the status of Jerusalem. But any move forward has been complicated by the Hamas movement, which controls Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

The United States maintains a boycott against Hamas, which it classifies as a "terrorist" organization.