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RAMALLAH, West Bank - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has promised a bigger American push towards a Palestinian state in a bid to bolster moderate President Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with Hamas.
"I have heard loud and clear the call for deeper American engagement ... You will have my commitment to do precisely that," Rice said on Sunday local time in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Rice, who later held talks in Amman with Jordan's King Abdullah, offered no details about US plans to revive stalled peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israeli officials said Washington was exploring several options including the creation of a Palestinian state with temporary borders, an idea proposed in a U.S.-backed peace plan known as the "road map" but repeatedly rejected by Abbas.
"I have stressed to the secretary of state our rejection of temporary solutions, including provisional borders for our state," Abbas said on Sunday. Palestinians fear such temporary frontiers would become final, leaving them a truncated state.
Rice, who has avoided the high-speed diplomacy of some previous US administrations, is trying to strengthen Abbas in his showdown with the governing Hamas group, which won elections a year ago and whose charter calls for Israel's destruction.
Rice said she would focus on accelerating the three-stage road map in order to "show to the Palestinian people how we might move towards the establishment of a Palestinian state".
Abbas has called for new elections in a challenge to Hamas, and Washington hopes Palestinians will rally around the moderate president if he can demonstrate progress towards statehood.
Washington is also seeking to strengthen Abbas militarily by pouring US$86 million ($125 million) into helping train and equip his presidential guard. Hamas receives aid from Iran and other Islamist allies, and is building up its own "executive force".
In addition to Abbas, Rice met with Mohammad Dahlan, a strongman from the president's Fatah faction and one of his top security advisers. Hamas accuses Dahlan of masterminding efforts to bring down its government, a charge Dahlan denies.
Rice, on her eighth trip to the region in her two years as secretary of state, did not directly address Palestinian objections to a state with provisional borders, part of the second stage of the road map.
Under the plan's first stage, Israel was supposed to halt settlement building in the West Bank and the Palestinians were required to dismantle militant groups.
Abbas told Rice he was "ready for end-game negotiations" over the final borders of a Palestinian state, top Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said.
"I've heard how he (Abbas) sees the 'road map' and to get to that end state. So I think it's not a bad thing to listen. But ... it's also important to act and we'll look for ways to act," Rice told reporters.
European and Arab allies have long pressed Washington to get more involved in the peace process which collapsed in 2000.
"(Jordan's King Abdullah) will push for a bigger US effort to reach a final settlement based on a two-state solution, an independent Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel," said one official in Amman.
Critics say Washington is responding now because it needs help in containing Iraq's violence and Iran's nuclear programme.
Abbas told Rice he would make one last effort to form a unity government with Hamas but was determined to hold new elections if those talks failed, a Palestinian official said.
Rice met top Israeli ministers on Saturday and will hold talks on Monday with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem.
Rice is seeking Arab help to bolster Abbas and to stabilise Iraq during a trip that will include stops in Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as well as Germany and Britain.
- REUTERS
