The chair of Labour Friends of Israel will visit the United States to seek support for a new campaign aiming to bring Israeli and Palestinian communities together in co-existence projects.

Joan Ryan will meet American politicians to discuss LFI's hopes of using the scheme to help work towards a peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict.

The Labour MP's trip to Washington DC next month for meetings on Capitol Hill will be the first time an LFI chair has visited a foreign country other than Israel.

LFI's campaign - titled "For Israel, For Palestine, For Peace" - will support the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace and was launched in Parliament on Wednesday.

It hopes to convince the government to back the international campaign which already has the backing of US Congressmen.

The group said co-operation and community projects were "an essential underpinning of any lasting peace agreement". It called Britain's spending on such initiatives "pitiful" and urged the government to increase funding from a current level of around £150,000 a year to £1.35 million.