'Talks pretty fruitful.' Rice
Photo: Rice
Rice gauges Mideast peace talks before Bush visit
Starting a three-day trip to Israel and Jordan, US secretary of state says will hold two trilateral meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to discuss practical ways to improve the lives of Palestinians. 'I am not coming to insert American ideas into this process,' she adds
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Saturday she would work on ways to ease West Bank travel restrictions but had not come with proposals on how to bridge differences in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
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Starting a three-day trip to Israel and Jordan, Rice said she would hold two trilateral meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to discuss practical ways to improve the lives of Palestinians as well as the broader US effort to secure the outlines of a peace deal by the end of the year.
"I am not coming to insert American ideas into this process," Rice said of negotiations led by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Quriea. Rice described the talks so far as "pretty fruitful".
Rice's visit—her second this month—aims to assess the prospects for progress toward peace before US President George W. Bush's expected return to the region in May.
Bush has little to show four months after reviving negotiations with fanfare at a Annapolis, Maryland summit.
'Improve movement and access'
Signaling a desire to speed up the pace of diplomacy, Bush invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for White House talks in early May.
In addition to talks with Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and Abbas, Rice plans to hold a trilateral meeting on Sunday with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
"I will spend a good deal of time on issues concerning the West Bank and issues concerning the ability to provide a better life for the people of the West Bank, including ways to improve movement and access," Rice said.
Barak has resisted calls for sweeping removals of West Bank checkpoints, citing fear of Palestinian militant infiltrations. The Palestinians call the hundreds of checkpoints, roadblocks and other barriers a form of collective punishment.
On Monday, Rice will hold a trilateral meeting with Livni and Quriea.
Rice said earlier this month neither Israel nor the Palestinians had done "nearly enough" to carry out the 2003 "Road Map" peace plan under which Israel is required to halt West Bank settlement activity and uproot settler outposts and the Palestinians to rein in militants.
Looming over the entire effort is a split among Palestinians between Abbas' Fatah faction, which holds sway in the West Bank, and Islamist Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip by force last year and preaches the Jewish state's destruction.
