U.S. presses Israel on Gaza students' exit visas

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States pressed Israel onFriday to let seven Gaza Strip Palestinians travel to theUnited States to study on coveted U.S. government Fulbrightfellowships and Israel said it was working on the issue.

Israel tightened its cordon of the Gaza Strip after theHamas Islamist group took over the coastal Mediterraneanterritory nearly a year ago and it gives few Palestinians,besides some who are gravely ill, permission to leave.

The U.S. State Department this week told the seven thattheir Fulbright grants had been withdrawn and it has takensteps to be able to direct the money to other Palestinians inthe West Bank because of the trouble getting the exit visasfrom Gaza.

However, after The New York Times published a report on theissue on Friday, U.S. officials said they were redoubling theirefforts to get the Israeli exit visas for the students.

Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs WilliamBurns, the third-ranking U.S. diplomat, spoke to the Israeliambassador to the United States on Friday to emphasize the U.S.desire to see the matter resolved, the State Department said.

"Frankly, a decision to let people that have been vettedfor what is perhaps the most prestigious foreign educationalprogram run by the United States ... it ought to be falling offa log for them to be able to do this," said U.S. StateDepartment spokesman Tom Casey.

"I expect that we'll have some positive outcome for this inthe not-too-distant future," he told reporters.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said a few ofthe Fulbright students had recently left Gaza through the Erezcrossing but Casey said he could not verify this. It was notimmediately possible obtain independent confirmation.

"We're trying to get them out," Mekel said. "Obviously thesituation, with Hamas shooting at the border crossings, it isnot such an easy thing to do."

There are regular rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel andthe Israeli government argues that its travel restrictions aredesigned to prevent suicide bombings or other attacks.

PRESTIGIOUS AWARDS

The State Department spokesman said the money for the Gazaresidents had not been given to other students and that if theseven received their exit visas, they would be given theFulbright fellowships.

Top U.S. officials appeared to have been taken by surpriseby the incident and embarrassed that their initial efforts toget Israel to allow the students to leave had not worked.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggested shedisapproved of the move to reallocate the money for the sevenGaza students, who hope to pursue advanced degrees at Americaninstitutions in the fall.

"It was a surprise to me and I am definitely going to lookinto it," Rice said at a news conference with Iceland's ForeignMinister Ingibjorg Gisladottir in Reykjavik. "I am a hugesupporter of Fulbrights."

Fulbright grants are the U.S. flagship program ininternational educational exchange and are used to help promotea better understanding of U.S. values abroad.

Rice is expected to return to the Middle East next month tocontinue the Bush administration's uphill push to broker anIsraeli-Palestinian peace deal by the end of the year.

(Additional reporting Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, JosephNasr and Adam Entous in Jerusalem and Susan Cornwell inReykjavik; Writing by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Vicki Allen)