US officials keep in touch with Mideast leaders as they try to get peace process back on track

Clinton talks to Mubarak; US envoy busy in Mideast

ZURICH — U.S. officials are keeping in touch with Mideast leaders in hopes of getting the faltering peace process back on track.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday. She was in Zurich, where Turkey and Armenia signed an accord to establish diplomatic relations.

President Barack Obama’s Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, was heading to Egypt for talks with the foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, and the intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman.

Mitchell met with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad after visiting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Friday.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly says Mitchell plans to be in Jerusalem on Sunday for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.