Brown in Middle East leader talks

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Gordon Brown has flown into Tel Aviv for two days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian political leaders, BBC reports.

He has held talks with Israeli president Shimon Peres, who lavished him with praise, and will later meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.

Aides said the talks would focus on barriers to investment in the occupied territories, Britain's trade links and ways forward in the peace process.

The trip follows an earlier visit by the prime minister to Iraq.

His schedule also includes an address to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, on Monday - the first by a British head of government.

Mr Brown began his visit by laying a wreath at Jerusalem's Holocaust museum.

Afterwards he said: "Nothing prepares you for what we see here.