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Rice to hold new Jerusalem talks Israel - No peace before security
(about 10 hours later)
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has arrived in Jerusalem - her eighth visit to the city this year - for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Israel has told the US there can be no deal for a Palestinian state unless its own security is guaranteed.
Her visit comes ahead of a planned US-sponsored international conference aimed at injecting life into the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that security for her country had to come first.
But expectations of her visit and the conference are low across the region. Ms Rice is in the region to prepare the ground for a planned peace conference in the US city of Annapolis, Maryland, later this month.
She is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, then Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. She will later hold a news conference with Middle East envoy Tony Blair.
What Condoleezza Rice wants on her visit she is pretty sure she is not going to get, BBC Middle East correspondent Katya Adler reports from Jerusalem. On Monday, Ms Rice will travel to the West Bank for talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
She had hoped for a joint Israeli-Palestinian document outlining the principles by which a Palestinian state could eventually be established. Nobody wants to see another terror state in the region Tzipi Livni, Israeli foreign minister Ms Livni insisted that progress could be made once the Palestinians agreed to implement their obligations under a long-stalled US-backed "road map" for peace.
"The meaning is security for Israel first and then the establishment of a Palestinian state," she said. "Nobody wants to see another terror state in the region."
Israel has been concerned about the takeover of Gaza in June by the Islamist movement Hamas, which does not recognise the state of Israel and is branded a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU.
Mr Abbas's Fatah group remains in control of the West Bank.
'Knotty discussions''Knotty discussions'
The two sides have been holding an intensive round of bilateral talks of late but Ms Rice admitted her aim for now was just to encourage Israelis and Palestinians to keep trying. Ms Rice is on her eighth visit to the region this year, hoping to inject life into the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. But expectations of her visit and the Maryland conference are low.
Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas met last week in Jerusalem The Palestinians want a clear timetable for resolving some of the most sensitive issues in the conflict, including the status of Jerusalem and the borders of a Palestinian state.
"I don't expect to reach an agreement on a document," she told reporters on her plane. Israel has rejected written deadlines, saying the whole process can be damaged if they are missed.
The two sides have been holding an intensive round of bilateral talks but Ms Rice admitted her aim for now was just to encourage Israelis and Palestinians to keep trying.
"I don't expect to reach an agreement on a document," she told reporters on the plane to Tel Aviv on Saturday evening.
"They are going through some knotty discussions and I think those knotty discussions are going to continue for a while... I just want to help make sure that they are working in a straight line ahead.""They are going through some knotty discussions and I think those knotty discussions are going to continue for a while... I just want to help make sure that they are working in a straight line ahead."
The joint document is key ahead of the international peace conference originally planned for the end of this month, our correspondent adds.
But ongoing Israeli-Palestinian tensions and deep divisions internally between Palestinian factions mean across the Middle East people are sceptical as to the point of the meeting.
The US administration would like Arab states it views as moderate to attend but it is not yet sure that they will, our correspondent says.