Rice tells Abbas US will expand peace drive

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Jan 14 (Reuters) US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a bid to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas, vowed today to expand Washington's role in the peace process with the goal of moving toward a Palestinian state.

Rice said the United States was ''deeply committed'' to finding ways to accelerate the stalled ''road map'' peace plan in order to ''show to the Palestinian people how we might move toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.'' Rice offered no details on how Washington would expand its involvement. Israeli officials said Rice was exploring several options, including the creation of a Palestinian state with temporary borders, an idea rejected by Abbas.

''I have stressed to the secretary of state our rejection of temporary solutions, including provisional borders for our state,'' Abbas said with Rice at his side at a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Palestinians fear such temporary borders would become final, leaving them with a truncated state.

The United States wants Abbas to emerge victorious in his showdown with the ruling Hamas Islamists, a group Washington labels a terrorist entity.

The United States plans to pour 86 million dollar into helping train and equip Abbas's presidential guard.

Hamas receives aid from Iran and other Islamist allies, and is building up its own ''executive force''.

Rice met Israeli ministers on Saturday but said she had not come to the region with a specific plan to jumpstart Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations that collapsed in 2000.

The road map peace plan has not moved past the first stage because of the failure of the Israelis and the Palestinians to meet their obligations -- Israel is supposed to halt settlement building in the West Bank while Palestinians must dismantle militant groups.

The second stage outlines a Palestinian state with provisional borders.

''I have heard loud and clear the call for deeper American engagement in these processes,'' Rice said.

''You will have my commitment to do precisely that,'' she said to Abbas.

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