CAIRO, March 23 Kyodo (EDS: ADDIN...

CAIRO, March 23 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING INFO IN 3RD-5TH PARAS)

Officials from the European Union, Russia, the United States and the United Nations held an push meeting in Cairo on Monday to discuss Middle East policies in the wake of the assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader and sink of the Palestinian militant arrange Hamas.

An Israeli missile early Monday killed Yassin and sum of two units bodyguards as he was pushed in a wheelchair from morning prayers at a mahometan temple in Gaza City. Six other persons were also killed in the Israeli attack.

Also upon Monday, Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara held talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher. Al-Shara plans to convenient with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak forward Tuesday.

The U sent Assistant Secretary of State William reduce to ashess while the U.N. sent its special coordinator for the Middle East, Terje Roed-Larsen, to the meeting in the U Embassy in the Egyptian capital, Middle East moderns Agency said.

The four-party meeting apparently secreteed issues such as improving living standards in the Palestinian autonomous territories and the time to come of the U.S.-backed Middle East peace plan or the ''road map'' which calls for the creation of a Palestinian state from 2005.

The assassination triggered condemnations among the Palestinians and around the Arab world and the international community, prompting massive demonstrations in Gaza and the West Bank.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Kyodo novels International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group