US says Israel, Palestinians must show progress in secret peace talks
The Bush administration told Israeli and Palestinian leaders that they will need to show progress in their secret talks soon, or risk a potentially fatal erosion in public support for a process now in its sixth month without any obvious successes.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice relayed this message during meetings with both sides a little more than a week ago. Rice was reacting mainly to the increasingly pessimistic Palestinian assessments of the talks, but she warned that confidence was fragile among Israelis, too. (AP)
