Unity government raises problems for Rice meeting

WASHINGTON, Feb 16 (Reuters) US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the unclear character of the new Palestinian government had complicated her meeting next week with Palestinian and Israeli leaders.

''It's obviously more complicated because of the uncertainties surrounding the national unity government,'' Rice said yesterday, referring to the agreement between the militant Hamas movement and moderate President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.

''But then in the West Asia, if you wait for the perfect circumstances you would probably never take the airplane,'' Rice said in an interview with US newspaper reporters.

The talks had been billed as the start of a renewed US effort to try to broker a West Asian peace deal but Rice and others sought to lower expectations. Some officials in Jerusalem have said the focus would be on US and Israeli concerns about the unity government deal.

''The purpose of the trilateral is just really to begin a conversation to look on how we can move forward on what everyone believes is the most important goal of two states living side by side,'' said Rice.

West Asian diplomats and analysts pointed to the weakness of both Olmert and Abbas as well as changes in the Palestinian president's tactics by forging a deal with Hamas.

The Bush administration is deliberating how to handle contacts with a new Palestinian government that includes both Hamas and Fatah. A Palestinian official said Abbas was told that Washington would boycott all members unless international demands on policy toward Israel were met.

But Rice, who declined to discuss diplomatic conversations with the Palestinians, said Washington was holding back on making any judgments until details of a new government were known.

''We are not going to jump the gun here,'' she said.

But Rice made clear that the United States fully supported Abbas and his peace efforts with Israel.

''It would be a very big mistake to not continue to deal with him and to not continue to build on his commitment to a two-state solution and to non-violence,'' she said.

The US goal of bolstering Abbas and isolating Hamas has also hit a snag in Congress, where a US lawmaker is blocking a request by the Bush administration for 86 million dollars to help train Abbas' security forces.

''The strategy of strengthening Abu Mazen (Abbas) over Hamas has been preempted and that changes both what the US was trying to do and how the US was trying to do it,'' said West Asian East expert Jon Alterman.

Former US ambassador to Israel and Egypt, Ned Walker, said it was unrealistic to expect any breakthroughs from next week's three-way meeting in Jerusalem.

''It seems to me that it is good to do this but we should not put too much of a high expectation on this and undercut the secretary and her efforts,'' said Walker.

After Israel, Rice will travel to Jordan and then Berlin to report to the quartet of West asian peace brokers -- the United States, Russia, the United Nations and European Union.

The United States is under pressure from Russia and, to a lesser extent, the European Union to ease the embargo on Hamas, which was imposed a year ago after the militant group trounced Abbas's Fatah in elections.

Washington has insisted it will lift the embargo only when Hamas has accepted three quartet conditions -- to recognize Israel, agree to past agreements and renounce violence.

REUTERS PB RN0944