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JERUSALEM - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets Jordan's King Abdullah and holds further talks with Palestinian and Israeli officials today, the third day of her Middle East trip to try and revive peacemaking.
Rice met separately on Sunday with Palestinians and Israelis to gauge the chances
for peace talks but said she was not striving for a "big bang" breakthrough.
She visited the West Bank city of Ramallah to talk to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas before heading to dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in the first of what may be a series of back-and-forth talks with the two.
Making her fourth visit to the Middle East in four months, Rice is talking to them separately because Olmert has ruled out engaging Abbas on peace since the Fatah leader formed a Palestinian unity government with the Islamist Hamas faction.
Israel and the Quartet of Middle East negotiators -- the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia -- have demanded the Palestinian government recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept existing peace deals.
The new unity administration has agreed only to "respect" previous accords and has stopped short of recognising Israel or giving up the right to armed struggle.
Rice will meet Abdullah in the Jordanian capital Amman where she also plans to see Abbas, before returning to Jerusalem to for further talks with Olmert.
Earlier this month, Abdullah appealed to the United States to do more to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Rice has been touring the Middle East trying to persuade Arab governments to breathe new life into a peace plan they ratified in 2002 by adding what she calls "active diplomacy" -- seen as code for early contacts with Israelis.
Her best hope is that the Israelis and Palestinians will agree to separate but "parallel" discussions on a common set of issues that could eventually lead to direct negotiations.
"You need to prepare the ground well, you need to spend time with the parties. You need to understand what is tolerable (for) each side," Rice said at a news conference with Abbas.
Speaking to US reporters before dining with Olmert, Rice acknowledged her approach was cautious and said the chances for quick, dramatic progress were low.
"My approach has been, I admit, careful. It's been step by step. I have not been willing to try for the big bang. I don't think that that's where we are," she said.
"The question here isn't speed. The question is trying to really move forward toward the establishment of a Palestinian state."
Analysts doubt Rice can make much progress given Olmert's political weakness -- one opinion poll this month showed he would win as little as 3 per cent of the vote if an election were held immediately -- and the divisions among the Palestinians.
There were clashes between the factions in Gaza last week in a sign of the power struggle between Hamas and Fatah militants.
- REUTERS
