WASHINGTON, July 23: Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister arrived at the White on Sunday to hold talks with President George W. Bush and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the Lebanon crisis, ahead of Rice’s departure to the Middle East.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal made no comment ahead of the talks with Bush, but he planned to propose an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon, an official in Riyadh told AFP earlier.

The minister would present ‘ideas about an initiative to stop the deterioration of the situation in Lebanon and bring an end to military aggressions against Lebanon’, the official said on condition of anonymity.

“These ideas focus on establishing a ceasefire as soon as possible and then solving the remaining problems between Israel and Lebanon.”

The official said the proposals foresaw an ‘exchange of prisoners’ between Hezbollah and Israel, something the Israeli government has so far ruled out without the prior release of two soldiers captured by the militant group in a deadly cross-border raid on July 12.

He said Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz had already discussed the proposals with French President Jacques Chirac in Paris last week, and that ‘French officials showed enthusiasm towards these ideas’.

Rice was to leave for the Middle East on a mission to defuse the escalating Lebanon crisis almost immediately after the meeting with the foreign minister, who was accompanied by chief of the Saudi national security council, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan.—AFP