The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, will meet Middle East leaders during a five-day visit to the region, which starts tomorrow.
Before his visit he will participate in a discussion on the Middle East with his European Union counterparts, as part of this weekend's informal meeting of EU foreign ministers at Genval, outside Brussels.
The Minister travels from Brussels to Cairo tomorrow. On Monday he is expected to meet the Egyptian President, Mr Hosni Mubarak, the country's Foreign Minister, Mr Ahmed Maher, and the secretary-general of the Arab League, Mr Amr Moussa. The Minister's visit is also part of the preparations for the Irish presidency of the United Nations Security Council for the month of October. Mr Cowen is due to address the UN General Assembly in New York later this month.
On Monday evening he will fly from Cairo to Tel Aviv, where he is to have dinner with the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres.
The next day he is to meet the Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, the Opposition leader, Mr Yossi Sarid, and other senior politicians. He will pay a courtesy call on Israel's President Moshe Katsav.
The Minister then travels to the West Bank for meetings with the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mr Yasser Arafat, and the PA Minister for International Co-operation, Mr Nabil Sha'ath. Mr Arafat is expected to meet Mr Peres next week.
Mr Cowen flies to Damascus on Wednesday to meet his Syrian counterpart, Mr Farouq Shara'a.
He concludes his tour of Middle East capitals on Thursday with a visit to Beirut and a meeting with the Lebanese Foreign Minister, Mr Mahmud Hammud.
The visit is one of a series by European foreign ministers. Like his colleagues, Mr Cowen will be strongly encouraging the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships to engage directly in negotiations, to bring the violence to an end and to implement the report of the international committee chaired by Senator George Mitchell.
The report calls for an immediate end to violence, followed by confidence-building measures such as a halt to the construction of Israeli settlements and the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian security co-operation.
It is understood that, while pressing the Palestinian leadership for a "major effort" to curb violence, the Minister will point out the need for parallel and simultaneous moves on the Israeli side, e.g., a freeze on settlements, restoration of revenues to the Palestinian Authority and other measures to ease the tension.