The European Union’s top diplomat Catherine Ashton was on a one day visit on Tuesday aimed at restarting Palestinian-Israeli “peace talks”

The European Union's top diplomat Catherine Ashton was on a one day visit on Tuesday aimed at galvanizing both the Palestinian and the Israeli into restarting “peace talks”. 
  
Ashton, who arrived overnight, met her Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman ahead of a whirlwind visit to the West Bank town of Ramallah where she was to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and premier Salam Fayyad. She was to return to occupied Jerusalem for evening talks with Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu.
  
The visit is part of a broader Middle East tour which comes in the context of two massive popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia which have shaken up the region and prompted a shift in its strategic balance. It also comes 10 days after a meeting of top diplomats from the Middle East Quartet, which groups the European Union, the United States, Russia and the United Nations.
  
"The main focus of her visit is to follow up on the Quartet's meeting earlier this month and ahead of another meeting in March. The aim is to create momentum and movement in the peace process," said Shadi Othman, the EU's Ramallah-based spokesman.
  
The EU said Ashton would debrief the parties on the Quartet meeting in Munich, Germany "and outline the next steps agreed during the meeting, notably the upcoming meeting of Quartet envoys with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Brussels."

The diplomats are to meet again at an unspecified date in March, before which their envoys are expected to hold separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Brussels.