Rice scrambles to salvage Mideast peace initiative [View All]

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070218/pl_afp/mideastusdiplomacy_070218204211;_ylt=AkjcRKhM6Gyj8IK2v5sOuFrMWM0F

Rice scrambles to salvage Mideast peace initiative

by David Millikin 1 hour, 19 minutes ago

JERUSALEM (AFP) - US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice shuttled between Palestinian and Israeli leaders over the weekend to prepare for a three-way peace summit that has been overtaken by battles over a Palestinian unity government.

Rice said her talks Sunday with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister had been extensive, cordial and candid.

But she declined to go into detail of what would be discussed at Monday's meeting and sought to lower expectations of any breakthrough in reviving an Israeli-Palestinian peace process that has been frozen for years.

"This is not something that I expect to move along very quickly," she said.

"If you ask people to run at this point, I think somebody's going to fall down, and that's probably not a good thing."