The United States will consult with key Arab states next week as it seeks to defuse growing opposition to a sweeping plan for economic, political and cultural reform in the Middle East that has become a central feature of President George W. Bush's foreign policy.
Undersecretary of State Mark Grossman, the State Department's third-ranking official, planned to leave on Sunday on a trip to Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain, as well as Turkey and Brussels.
US officials, criticised by European, Arab and even American analysts, are scurrying to ease fears and explain their still-evolving ideas before the Greater Middle East Initiative becomes overwhelmed by political controversy.
The subject will also be discussed when the European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and other EU officials meet Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice in Washington on Monday.
On his trip, Grossman is expected to emphasise Bush's commitment to the initiative and to stress that while it reflects a "revolutionary idea, we will seek to implement it in an evolutionary fashion," one official said in an interview.
Grossman will also underscore the urgency of confronting the Mideast's staggering unemployment, poverty and repression, conditions the administration believes have stoked anti-Western and anti-American extremism.
"The region has got to join the rest of the world somehow. ... It's all very straightforward: Freedom will set you free," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Bush administration has circulated a draft plan, which it would like the world's Group of Eight nations to endorse when they meet at Sea Island, Georgia, in June.
The United States wants "something lasting, some sort of process (in a) principles-based statement" on Mideast reform to emerge from the meeting, the official said.
As Washington woos Arab support, there is talk of inviting the leaders of Jordan, Morocco and Bahrain to the G-8 meeting and of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak visiting the White House.
Before the draft was leaked to the London-based Arabic newspaper Al Hayat, little was known about the specifics of the US approach, angering European and Arab leaders alike. Bush laid out his broad vision in several recent speeches.
Proposals include training women teachers to educate girls; wire classrooms to the Internet; training jurists; establishing election systems and financing development banks.
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