Rice ends 4-day trip with West Bank talks

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with the new Palestinian government in the West Bank yesterday to urge deeper cooperation with Israel in relaunching a peace process that has been abandoned for the last 18 months.

Five months have passed since Rice last visited the Palestinian territories. During that time, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, prompting a split between Gaza and the West Bank and the official dissolution of the Hamas government.

On the last stop of a four-day Middle East trip, Rice met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the new, 14-member cabinet of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Rice and Fayyad signed an agreement that will eventually provide $80 million for an overhaul of Palestinian security forces. The initial payment will be limited to about $10 million, U.S. officials said.

At a news conference before leaving the region, Rice said she thought there should be "a deepening of the dialogue between the Palestinians and the Israelis on all of the issues that will lead ultimately to the founding of a Palestinian state."

Abbas said he was willing to work toward a "declaration of principles" that would outline some of the basic shape of a Palestinian state. That option would allow negotiators to put off until later some of the most difficult issues.

That process, Abbas said, would allow negotiators to "arrive at a result" so that they know "what the endgame will be." Details about implementation can then be agreed to later, he said.

Rice was in the region in another attempt by the Bush administration to generate movement among Israel, the Palestinians, and the wider Arab world, this time to participate in a fall international conference in the United States. Her mission was met with skepticism about imminent progress.

Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi said that if the U.S.-orchestrated meeting was "only a verbal, feel-good exercise, it could backfire."

"There have been so many expectations and dashed hopes that it could lead to new violence," Ashrawi said in an interview. "There's a real sense that it may be too little, too late. As usual, American presidents leave it to the end of their term to deal with the Palestinian crisis for the legacy of an outgoing president."

At the news conference, Rice acknowledged that Israeli and Arab leaders had stressed to her that the proposed meeting must be "substantive and meaningful" and advance the two-state solution.

President Bush "has no interest in calling people together for a photo op," Rice said. She conceded that she still had a lot of work to do before bringing the parties together.

Israelis also voiced doubts.

"Prime Minister Olmert told me last night that he, too, shared that view, that this was a meeting that ought to be and needs to be substantive and meaningful and that will, in fact, help get to a two-state solution," Rice said.