AMMAN: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will seek on Thursday to resuscitate the Palestinian-Israeli peace process after coming under pressure from moderate Arab nations hoping to expand a ceasefire deal.
Rice was set to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday in the West Bank town of Jericho, followed by talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem.
Rice arrived in Jordan on Wednesday with President George W Bush. The president met Jordan's King Abdullah, where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a major topic of discussion.
A senior US official, speaking to reporters, said Bush and Abdullah agreed "this was a potential moment of opportunity".
Abdullah told Bush the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian dispute was the "core conflict" in the region and that resolving it could be a catalyst for lasting Arab-Israeli peace, a Jordanian palace statement said.
US officials said the goal was to capitalise on a fragile ceasefire deal between the Palestinians and the Israelis last weekend in Gaza and to expand that deal to the West Bank.
"We would expect a rigorous effort in implementing the ceasefire," said a senior State Department official.
Arab allies of Washington such as Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are pushing hard for the United States to become more involved in trying to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict in the hope that this will help the situation in Iraq.
But many obstacles exist, including the handover of prisoners from both sides and deadlocked negotiations between Abbas and the militant group Hamas to form a new unity government that would lead to the West lifting restrictions on the current Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.
