AMMAN - Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah Khatib will Tuesday join his Japanese and Israeli counterparts in a meeting hosted by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Jericho.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Sabah Rafei told The Jordan Times yesterday that Khatib will discuss with Fayyad, Japan’s Taro Aso and Israeli top diplomat Tzipi Livni Middle East economic and political issues, including a Japanese-led initiative to create peace and prosperity in the region.

Fayyad will discuss with the three ministers “economic and political issues in the region”, Saadi Karanz, a senior official with Fayyad’s Cabinet, told Agence France-Presse.

Aso is due to arrive in Amman today for a one-day visit during which he will meet with Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit and Khatib before heading for Palestine and Israel.

This regional tour of the Japanese minister is “part of Japan’s efforts to proactively engage in promoting the Middle East peace”, ministry of foreign affairs of Japan said in a statement issued yesterday.

Aso will discuss with officials here the Middle East peace process and bilateral relations as well as encourage directly both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to redouble their efforts to advance the peace process, the statement added.

Japan is underwriting an agro-industrial park in Jericho in the hopes of developing the battered Palestinian economy. Japan, the world’s second largest economy and a major donor to the Middle East, has tried to boost its visibility in the region in line with its aspirations for a greater global role

At a press conference held in Tokyo on August 7, Aso said he would be discussing the “Arc of Freedom and Prosperity”, a Japanese economic plan to bring about development and prosperity in emerging democracies outside Eurasia, including the Middle East.

In a related development, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office said on Sunday it would decide soon whether to remove some of the hundreds of roadblocks that impede Palestinian travel in the occupied West Bank.

Olmert has been under pressure from the United States to take more concrete steps to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas before a US-sponsored conference on the long-stalled peace process expected to take place in November.

“A decision will be made shortly,” David Baker, a spokesman for Olmert’s office, told Reuters.

“Wherever and whenever possible, it is Israel’s intention to ease up on the Palestinian population, while taking into account the relevant security situation at that point in time.”

Western diplomats said Israel intended to ease travel restrictions in the West Bank in phases, starting with a small number of roadblocks in less sensitive areas.

Israel has promised to remove roadblocks in the past. But many of the promised changes were either never carried out or quickly reversed.

Cabinet Minister Meir Sheetrit said the decision to remove roadblocks hinged on whether Abbas improved security in the West Bank following Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip in June.

“If they do not do so, so we have to take care of the security inside Israel, therefore we cannot remove those blockages,” he said.

Tom Lantos, a key US congressional leader, told reporters in Jerusalem: “Premature removal of these checkpoints is a guarantee of violence and terrorism erupting.”

Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said Israel had agreed to present to the Palestinians a plan for removing roadblocks this week.

During last week’s meeting between the leaders in the West Bank city of Jericho, Olmert told Abbas that Israel was working on the roadblock issue, Baker said.

Israel says its checkpoints and unmanned roadblocks - usually piles of rubble on roads linking towns or villages in the West Bank - are meant to prevent militants from launching attacks. Palestinians call them collective punishment.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak was quoted in Israel’s Yediot Ahronot newspaper on Friday as saying that he would not carry out Olmert’s plans to remove roadblocks.

Olmert and Abbas are trying to reach agreement on principles for establishing a Palestinian state in time for the US-sponsored conference.