The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Jerusalem

Prime Minister Gordon Brown met Israeli leaders on Sunday on his first visit to Jerusalem since becoming premier in a bid to bolster peace negotiations and economic development.

The visit, which will also take him to the occupied West Bank, is aimed at revitalising sluggish Middle East peace talks and pressing his "economic roadmap" to peace, which is based on improving the Palestinian economy.

He has also been invited to address the Israeli parliament on Monday-the first time a British premier will make a speech at the Knesset. On Sunday, Brown visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial where he laid a wreath at the eternal flame in the Hall of Remembrance, which honours the six million Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust.

"Nothing prepares one for the story that is told here-of the atrocities that should never have happened, and the truth that everyone who loves humanity should know," Brown wrote in the official guestbook after touring the museum.

He then met Israeli President Shimon Peres and is due to told talks later with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Brown was also planning to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Sunday "to discuss the way forward on the peace process and economic reconstruction and development," the premier's spokesman Michael Ellam told reporters.

Brown will also meet senior Israeli ministers and opposition figures during his trip, which follows a surprise trip on Saturday to Baghdad and the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

Brown-who spent 10 years as finance minister under Tony Blair, whom he succeeded as premier in June 2007 -- is keen to discuss boosting growth in the Palestinian territories and financial incentives for stamping out militants.

Last September, he set out an "economic roadmap" for peace in the Middle East, in which he said it was his "strong personal belief" that kick-starting growth in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was crucial to establishing peace.