Three- way Summit to set up Palestinian state

EGYPT: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would bring Israeli and Palestinian leaders together soon for what she called informal talks on how to set up a Palestinian state.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would take part in the meeting which aimed to reach a "political horizon" for the Palestinian people, Rice told a news conference in Egypt.

Diplomats have used the term "political horizon" in the past to mean offering Palestinians a credible expectation they would have their own state and that Israeli occupation would end.

But Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Islamist group Hamas, which controls the Palestinian government, said Rice's visit could be "the most dangerous to the Palestinian cause", and was aimed at "securing the Israeli interest".

Rice said: "My discussions, we hope, will lead to further work on a political horizon ... that would lead ultimately to the establishment of a Palestinian state."

"(Olmert and Abbas) want to start that discussion. It seems wise to begin with ... an informal discussion - to just sit and talk about the issues.".

A senior U.S. official said the meeting would be held in three to four weeks, probably in the Middle East. Similar meetings have taken place in the six years since talks on a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace deal broke down in 2001 but the U.S. official, who was travelling with Rice, said this one would be different.

"They haven't sat down for six years to talk about issues as ambitious as looking at what would be necessary to get a Palestinian state ... This is not just another meeting," said the official, who asked not to be named.

When talks collapsed in 2001, Israel was close to agreement on a Palestinian state including the Gaza Strip and most of the West Bank. But a change of government in Israel after the start of a second Palestinian uprising led to a long stalemate.

Rice said the United States did not plan to take part in every round of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations or move away from the peace "road map" drafted by international mediators in 2003.

"I have no intention of supplanting what is a developing fruitful channel bilaterally (between Olmert and Abbas) ... We will see when American presence is needed," Rice said.

Olmert, in broadcast remarks, said the three-way meeting should focus on "more far-reaching thoughts about our political horizons with the Palestinians in the Middle East".

Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, a political adviser to Abbas, said the president had yet to be informed about the three-way talks but added: "We welcome American participation in any Palestinian-Israeli meeting."

Hamas's Haniyeh said the Bush administration would not pressure Israel to make "any core concessions" to the Palestinians, but rather would push for a lifting of travel restrictions and withheld tax revenues to be transferred to Abbas to bolster his position.

"We view gravely what Rice is bringing and the political and security issues she is cooking up regarding the Palestinian situation," he said in a statement.

Luxor, Tuesday, Reuters.