United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is likely to visit the Middle East soon and sees an opening for Arab-Israeli peace despite the interior Palestinian power struggle, the State Department said on Thursday.

"I would expect in the near future that she probably will travel to the Middle East," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters, saying he could not provide details on when or where she may travel.

McCormack said Rice would focus on three issues during the trip - making progress on Israeli-Palestinian peace, promoting stability in Lebanon and finding ways to support the Iraqi government to "achieve a more stable, secure situation in Iraq."

	Advertisement

"This next trip is going to be more of intensive discussions and really, sort of, doing a deep dive on what are the possibilities and how might we partner together to move forward," he said of the effort on Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Following a meeting with Rice on Thursday, senior European diplomat Javier Solana confirmed that secretary of state will travel to the Middle East this month to try to promote peacemaking.

Asked if Rice were optimistic about prospects for peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians, Solana told reporters: "I don't think that optimism is the word. We have to stick to the word realism."

Rice reviewed her plans at the State Department with Solana, who will make his own, separate trip to the area this month. They also had lunch at the White House with Stephen Hadley, President George W. Bush's national security adviser.

"We will try to see how we can give a push to the peace process," Solana said, but declined to say whether Rice would try to set up a peace conference.

Rice did not take questions from reporters while posing for pictures with Solana in her office. However, McCormack was optimistic about her making headway.

"The way she sees it is that there is a potential opening here to make progress on the issues of a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security," McCormack said.

While boycotting Hamas - the militant group that controls the Palestinian parliament and Cabinet - the U.S. is trying to fan hopes for peacemaking between Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

McCormack also addressed the ongoing conflicts between Hamas and Fatah, saying, "One of the prerequisites for really making progress on a political horizon between the Israelis and Palestinians is the Palestinians sorting out [their] political differences."

McCormack added, "That doesn't mean that in the interim you cannot work with those who are partners for peace."

If she travels to Israel and the Palestinian territories, it would be Rice's eighth visit to the region in less than two years. Rice's last visit was in late November, when she met Abbas in the West Bank town of Jericho and Olmert in Jerusalem.

McCormack said Rice would not travel before U.S. President George W. Bush gives a speech outlining his new approach toward Iraq. No date has been announced for that speech.

Solana said he also discussed with Rice a conference due to be held in Paris January 25 on assisting Lebanon's economy as well as the situation in Afghanistan, where U.S. and NATO forces are cooperating in trying to back up the government against insurgents.

Later, McCormack said Rice was "inclined" to attend the Paris conference. "She wants to do everything she can to attend," he said.