She arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah following talks with Israeli leaders on Sunday, on her seventh trip to the region this year aimed at advancing the Middle East peace process after almost seven years of deadlock.

Her convoy swept into the Palestinian leadership compound after being briefly held up because of security concerns on the road from Jerusalem.

"I don't expect out of these meetings that there will be any particular outcome in the sense of breakthroughs on the (joint) document" currently being worked on by Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams, she said on Sunday.

"So I would just warn in advance not to expect that because it is really a work in progress," Rice said, adding that she expected to be back in the region in a couple of weeks ahead of the planned November peace conference.

Olmert and Abbas have met four times in the span of two months to prepare for the meeting and newly created negotiating teams are trying to hammer out a joint document ahead of the conference.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will also meet on Monday to discuss key issues of the document, a senior State Department official said.

Although both sides say they will start final status negotiations after the November conference, there are widespread disagreements over what a joint document, which will serve as a basis for those talks, will say.

The Palestinians want a detailed agreement and timeframe for implementing solutions to the thorniest issues in the conflict while the Israelis want a more vague document with core issues left until after the conference.

Although the conference is expected to be held in Annapolis, Maryland in November, the date, venue and participants have not yet been announced.

A senior State Department official emphasised that finding common ground between Israelis and Palestinians would be an uphill effort.

"I do think this is going to require a lot of hands on american diplomacy. I think that these are really tough issues. Some of the regional work cannot be done by the Israelis and the Palestinians alone," the official said.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP before talks with Rice that the Palestinians wanted to "lay the basis of an agreement before going to the conference" by reaching a joint document ahead of time.

But on Sunday, Olmert rebuffed Palestinian calls for a clear timeframe for implementing solutions to the thorniest problems of the decades-long conflict -- borders, refugees and the status of Jerusalem.

"I believe that setting a timetable for such a process would create problems rather than solve problems," he told a cabinet meeting.

"Talks between us and the Palestinians should be balanced and cautious with the intention of reaching a joint statement during the international meeting, although such a statement was never a condition for holding the summit."

Recent Israeli orders to impound Arab land near Jerusalem has also muddied the waters and Rice said that she would be telling Israel during her meetings that the move erodes confidence.

"The point that I will be making is that we have to be very careful as we are trying to move toward the establishment of a Palestinian state about actions and statements that erode confidence in the parties' commitment to a two-state solution," she told reporters.

She was responding to a question about Israel's confiscation of land between occupied east Jerusalem and the key West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim last week, reviving fears that the territory could be split in two.

In a sign that Israel could be hardening its position ahead of the meeting, Olmert announced Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni would head the negotiating team.

Livni has generally held a more hardline view over the peace talks than the man who had been expected to head the team -- Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon, a close Olmert ally who last week drew heavy fire after saying that sovereignty over Jerusalem should be shared with the Palestinians.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed