US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in the Middle East as she delves into Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking for the first time at an international donors conference for Gaza.
The United States is expected to pledge more than $900 million at tomorrow's one-day conference in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. The funds are aimed at post-conflict recovery in Gaza after Israel's military offensive in December.
Washington also wants the money to bolster Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and has stipulated no US funds will go through the militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza while Mr Abbas's Fatah movement runs the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
"I will be announcing a commitment to a significant aid package, but it will only be spent if we determine that our goals can be furthered rather than undermined or subverted," Mrs Clinton said in an interview taped on Friday.
After the conference in Egypt, where she will also meet European and Arab leaders, Clinton travels to Jerusalem to see Israeli politicians trying to cobble together a new government after February elections. Palestinians are also trying to form a government.
She plans to meet Benjamin Netanyahu, the hawkish Israeli prime minister-designate who on Saturday abandoned efforts to form a broad coalition government with centrist Tzipi Livni, who has been involved in US-brokered peace talks.
Ms Livni has accused Mr Netanyahu of insufficient commitment to the talks, and her decision not to form a government weakens Clinton's effort to kick-start the peace process her husband, former President Bill Clinton, failed to deliver on.
Silvan Shalom, a Netanyahu ally, said the Likud leader would engage in dialogue with the Palestinians but would not agree in advance to the two-state solution advocated by the international powers since the Oslo accords of 1993.
Elsewhere, Palestinian groups are taking part in Egyptian-mediated reconciliation talks. Mrs Clinton, who will travel to the West Bank, said the United States could only accept Hamas in a unity government if it met three conditions.
Those are to recognise Israel, sign on to previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements and renounce violence - conditions Hamas has refused to accept.
"Otherwise, I don't think it will result in the kind of positive step forward either for the Palestinian people or as a vehicle for a reinvigorated effort to obtain peace that leads to a Palestinian state," Mrs Clinton said.
After meeting Abbas in his West Bank office and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, She will travel to Brussels to see Nato foreign ministers.
In a bid to improve poor US ties with Moscow under the Bush administration, the former first lady plans to have dinner with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva before finishing up her week-long trip with a stop in Turkey on Saturday.
Reuters