US to bring Israeli-Palestinian leaders together

LUXOR, Egypt, Jan 15: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today said she would bring Israeli and Palestinian leaders together soon for what she called informal talks on how to set up a Palestinian state.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would take part in the meeting and the aim would be to reach a ''political horizon'' for the Palestinian people, Rice told a news conference in Egypt.

A senior U.S. official said the meeting would be held in three to four weeks, probably in the West Asia.

Diplomats have used the term ''political horizon'' in the past to mean offering Palestinians a credible expectation they would have their own state and that Israeli occupation would end.

''My discussions, we hope, will lead to further work on a political horizon ... that would lead ultimately to the establishment of a Palestinian state,'' said Rice.

''(Olmert and Abbas) want to start that discussion. It seems wise to begin with ... an informal discussion -- to just sit and talk about the issues,'' she said.

Similar meetings have taken place in the six years since talks on a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace deal broke down in 2001 but the US official, who was travelling with Rice, said this one would be different.

''They haven't sat down for six years to talk about issues as ambitious as looking at what would be necessary to get a Palestinian state... This is not just another meeting,'' said the official, asking not to be named.

''ROAD MAP''

Rice said the United States did not plan to take part in every round of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations or move away from the so-called peace ''road map'' drafted by international mediators in 2003.

''I have no intention of supplanting what is a developing fruitful channel bilaterally (between Olmert and Abbas)... We will see when American presence is needed,'' said Rice.

US President George W Bush's administration has avoided the minutiae of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and Rice's comments suggested that would continue.

Olmert, in broadcast remarks, said the three-way meeting should focus on ''more far-reaching thoughts about our political horizons with the Palestinians in the West Asia''.

When talks broke down in 2001, Israel was close to agreement on a Palestinian state including the Gaza Strip and most of the West Bank. But a change of government in Israel after the start of a second Palestinian uprising led to a long stalemate.

Rice, on a lengthy West Asia tour, had talks today with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the southern town of Luxor, site of some of the finest pharaonic temples and tombs.

She has been to Israel and the Palestinian territories, where she promised a US push for West Asia peace.

Rice has been pressing Olmert to take steps that could help bolster Abbas, who heads the once-dominant Fatah faction, in his power struggle with the Islamist Hamas group, which took control of the Palestinian government in March after winning elections.

But just as Rice's meeting with Olmert was getting under way, Israel's Housing Ministry said it was building 44 new residential units in Maale Adumim, the Jewish state's largest settlement in the occupied West Bank.

The US-backed ''road map'' calls for a halt to such construction on land Palestinians seek for a state. Israel says it is part of natural growth to accommodate settlers' needs.

Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, a political adviser to Abbas, said the Palestinian president had yet to be informed about the three-way talks but added: ''We welcome American participation in any Palestinian-Israeli meeting.'' Under US pressure, Olmert held his first formal meeting with Abbas on December 23.

Reuters