Rice presses Israel to ease travel restrictions

Rice is visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories for peace talks

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has pressed Israel to ease travel restrictions on Palestinians and called Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank problematic. But she says Washington believes an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is still possible before US President George W Bush leaves office next January.

Rice was speaking after meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Israeli-Palestinian talks have been clouded by violence, primarily along the border of the Gaza Strip, which is now controlled by Hamas and by Israel's expansion of settlements in the West Bank.

Rice launched her latest two-day visit to the region yesterday by saying she would assess Israel's steps on the ground to see if they had improved the daily lives of the Palestinians. These include the promised removal of West Bank roadblocks.

Rice said she had raised the question, with both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister Ehud Barak, of whether those roadblocks that are to be scrapped would have a significant effect on easing movement by Palestinians.

"We are trying to look not just at quantity, but also at quality of improvements," Rice said.

After Rice's last trip in late March, Israel said it planned to remove 61 barriers in the West Bank. But a UN survey subsequently found that only 44 obstacles had been scrapped -- and that most of these were of little or no significance.

Western pressure is mounting on Olmert to do more to ease travel restrictions and take other steps to shore up Abbas, whose authority has been limited to the West Bank since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June.

Before her talks with Abbas, Rice met Barak in Jerusalem. He exerts great influence over Israel's network of checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank. Abbas and Olmert are due to meet on Monday after Rice leaves. - Reuters