JERUSALEM (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted on Monday that the Israelis and Palestinians have a lot of work to do if they are to strike a peace deal by the end of the year.
At the start of her 18th visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories in the past two years, Rice welcomed Israel's release of nearly 200 Palestinian prisoners but urged both sides to take more steps to build confidence.
"We continue to have the same goal which is to reach agreement by the end of the year," Rice told reporters travelling with her on the plane from Washington to Tel Aviv.
"We have a lot of work ahead to do that, and obviously it's a complicated time, but it's always complicated out here," the top US diplomat said ahead of her talks with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Jerusalem.
The two sides formally relaunched the peace process after a seven-year hiatus at a US-hosted conference last November, with the goal of signing a full peace deal by the time President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.
But they have made little tangible progress on resolving the core issues of the conflict, including final borders, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of the 4.5 million UN-registered Palestinian refugees.
The process has been complicated by Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, and by the seizure of the Gaza Strip by the Islamist Hamas movement in June 2007.
Rice arrived here after the release of 198 Palestinian prisoners earlier on Monday in what Israel said was a goodwill gesture to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. Rice hailed the release, calling it "a very good step."
This is her first visit since Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced on July 30 that he will resign to battle corruption allegations after his centrist Kadima party chooses a new leader in September -- another cloud on the horizon.
Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister leading Israel's negotiating team with the Palestinians, is a front-runner to replace him, as is Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, a hawkish former general.
Livni on Thursday played down the likelihood of meeting the goal set at November's peace conference of agreeing a full deal this year, warning that "premature" efforts to bridge gaps could lead to "clashes."
Rice, who held separate meetings in Jerusalem with Livni and top Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qorei, said the Bush administration was simply trying to show both sides how to narrow their differences.
"I don't think anyone has been trying to bring pressure to bridge the gaps," she said.
Although Rice urged Israel to allow Palestinians more freedom of movement, she said it had recently lifted "significant checkpoints" blocking Palestinian access to and from towns in the West Bank.
A US State Department official said the removal of army checkpoints at Bir Nabala, south of Ramallah, Farsh al-Hawa near Hebron and Shavei Shomron, outside Jenin, benefits thousands of Palestinians.
The US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was also important to revive aid projects that "had flagged" in Jenin as well as to boost economic development throughout the West Bank.
He added that there were "some good prospects" for the Palestinians to work more with the Jewish state on improving security to prevent attacks on Israelis.
While acknowledging that "expectations are pretty low" among both publics, he said he believed a deal could still be struck by year-end.
But he warned the Bush administration not to "repeat the error of the past" administrations by making an 11th hour long-shot bid for peace that fails and dashes all hopes.
"We would not want to do that at the expense of the progress that is being made," the official said.
There have been no outward signs of progress on the core issues as Rice and her colleagues refuse to divulge any details of the negotiations for fear of exposing them to a harsh political glare that could derail them.
Rice was to join Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak for dinner in Tel Aviv Monday evening.
She is due on Tuesday to visit Abbas in Ramallah after holding trilateral talks with Qorei and Livni in Jerusalem.
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