United Nations, Dec 16, SPA -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in New York Monday for two days of meetings at U.N. headquarters where she will urge the U.N. Security Council to support a U.S.-drafted resolution on the Middle East. The draft urges Palestinians and Israelis to “refrain from any steps that could undermine confidence or prejudice the outcome of the negotiations” and calls for “an intensification of diplomatic efforts” aimed at securing a “comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in the Middle East.”If passed, it will be the first Security Council resolution on the Middle East since November 2003. The draft also asks the Security Council to endorse the goals of the Annapolis peace talks launched in November 2007 by President George W. Bush. The Council is expected to vote on the resolution Tuesday. Rice was meeting Monday with her counterparts in the Middle East negotiating group known as the Quartet, which include Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana. The Quartet’s Special Envoy Tony Blair is participating via video link. The representatives will also confer with an Arab League contact group that includes Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, as well as Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa. Rice will also try and shore up support for a U.S. proposal for U.N. authorization to pursue pirates ashore in Somalia. She said the Bush administration is united behind the idea that American or other forces might need to take on pirates under “hot pursuit” on land, according to an interview she gave to the Associated Press before traveling to New York.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/616739