Agencies\ Al Qassam website - Baroness Catherine Ashton, the European Union's new foreign policy chief, is due shortly in the Gaza Strip.

In the Middle East, Baroness Ashton is scheduled to meet Shimon Peres, but it is her visit to Gaza which is arousing the most interest, says Jon Donnison, the BBC's Gaza correspondent.

The visit has been welcomed by the United Nations, which says the blockade of Gaza has left hundreds of thousands in Gaza living in poverty.

The head of the UN's refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip, John Ging, said the people of Gaza were hoping for a single outcome from Baroness Ashton's visit - a lifting of the Zionist siege.

"We have to have action. A thousand days and a thousand nights of a mediaeval siege is far too much. It's a shame - it's a disgrace."

Baroness Ashton is on a regional tour that began in Cairo and also includes Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

Ms Ashton will be one of the most senior Western political figures to visit Gaza since Hamas won elections in 2006.