Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama is sending George Mitchell, his Middle East envoy, to the troubled region this week as the new U.S. administration seeks to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians, a White House aide said.

Mitchell is charged with the immediate task of facilitating a lasting cease-fire between Israel and the militant Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip. The former Senate Democratic leader will probably leave Washington tomorrow, according to the aide, who asked not to be identified.

Obama has pledged to renew the U.S.’s broader commitment to the peace process, including a separate Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Mitchell, who has negotiating authority in his role as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s top diplomat for Mideast peace, is set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, according to an Obama adviser familiar with the trip who requested anonymity.

State Department officials didn’t respond to calls seeking comment.

Mitchell, 75, is also likely to visit Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank and might make stops in Egypt and Jordan, the adviser said.

The former federal judge and senator from Maine headed peace negotiations in Northern Ireland that led to the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, bringing together the mostly Roman Catholic nationalists who wanted a united Ireland and the majority- Protestant unionists who favored continued ties with the U.K.

Civilian Honor

President Bill Clinton in 1999 gave Mitchell the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. civilian honor. Mitchell served as chairman of a fact-finding committee to examine the crisis in the Middle East from 2000 to 2001.

Obama, who has said he will work “actively and aggressively” for peace in the Middle East, underscored his determination to rely more on diplomacy than military power in his Jan. 20 inauguration speech.

He followed up with phone calls to leaders of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and other Arab nations on his first full day in office.

A new CNN opinion poll shows that a majority of Americans sympathized more with the Israelis than the Palestinians during the recent war in the Gaza Strip.

Israelis, Palestinians

Sixty percent of Americans in the nationwide survey said they were sympathetic toward the Israelis, compared with 17 percent who supported the Palestinians, CNN reported today on its Web site. A recent European poll showed that 23 percent of French people said the Palestinian Hamas group was primarily responsible for the war while 18 percent mainly blamed Israel.

The results indicate Israel successfully communicated in the U.S. its view that it had to defend itself against rocket attacks from the militant Hamas organization that controls Gaza and is considered a terrorist group by the U.S. and European Union. More than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died in the 22-day war.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kim Chipman in Washington at kchipman@bloomberg.net; Julianna Goldman in Washington at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 25, 2009 16:04 EST