MIDDLE EAST: The US Secretary of State, Ms Condoleezza Rice, began a two- day visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority yesterday by declaring that Israel would have to make "hard decisions for peace" and that the Palestinians had to "fight against terrorism".
Ms Rice, who is making her first visit to the region since taking up her new post, is trying to help revive the peace process by firming up actions on both sides which have led to a new period of calm in recent weeks.
"We will ask of our partners and our friends in Israel that Israel continues to make the hard decisions that must be taken in order to promote peace," she said before meeting the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon.
Ms Rice, who meets the Palestinian leader, Mr Mahmoud Abbas, today, arrived just two days before Mr Sharon and Mr Abbas are to meet for a summit at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt. She will not, however, be at the Red Sea resort.
Mr Sharon is not unhappy there will be no American representation at the summit. Israel is concerned that if the US plays a mediating role, it might put pressure on Mr Sharon into making concessions he does not want to make. Mr Abbas has won points in the US as a result of his actions aimed at ending the violence, including the deployment of Palestinian forces in Gaza to stop rocket fire by militants.
Against the backdrop of a dramatic decline in violence and the renewed hope of a return to the negotiating table, Ms Rice said that the possibility now existed of getting "back on to the road map", the internationally backed Middle East peace plan which was stillborn as a result of the ongoing warfare.
Mr Sharon, however, has never been an enthusiastic supporter of the road map, which culminates in Palestinian statehood, and does not want to be dragged into talks about final status issues like borders, refugees and Jerusalem.
Ms Rice said yesterday, however, that she believed the Israeli leaders planned to withdraw in the summer from Gaza was "one of the things that will help us get back onto the road map".
Asked repeatedly why the US - the main powerbroker in the region - would not be at Sharm, Ms Rice would only say that it was positive "when the parties in the region take these steps on their own".
There will be little actual negotiation at tomorrow's summit, with the sides having already worked out most of the issues.
On the agenda will be the handover of West Bank towns to Palestinian control, the release of Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails and a range of security issues.
The prisoner issue had threatened to cast a shadow over the proceedings after the Palestinians said they were unhappy with Israel's declared intention to release 900 prisoners, none of them involved in violent acts.
Mr Abbas wants some long-time prisoners to be released, believing this will boost his public standing.
Reuters adds: On Saturday in Ankara, Ms Rice said Russia must do more to show it was committed to "the basics of democracy" if it wanted deeper relations with the West. However the former Soviet specialist, who met her Russian counterpart in Turkey, said it would be counter-productive to punish Moscow over concerns the Kremlin had allowed apparently politically motivated trials and had restricted the media.