GEIR MOULSON
BERLIN
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice underlined international demands that any Palestinian government recognise Israel and renounce violence before a meeting of the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators.
Representatives of the EU, the US, the UN and Russia gathered for the second time this month in search of a way to advance stalled peace efforts amid strong misgivings about the Palestinians' planned unity government.
"All involved are well aware that this is and remains a difficult process," said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. "We have to show a great deal of realism as far as expectations are concerned."
Rice held a summit on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which concluded with no new agreements but a pledge to keep talking.
Israel ruled out talks on a final peace deal with Abbas if he goes ahead with plans for his moderate Fatah faction to join the Islamic militant Hamas in a new government.
The international community has demanded that any Palestinian government recognise Israel, accept previous peace accords and renounce violence as a condition for restoring aid. Hamas has rejected the conditions, and the unity government accord tries to finesse those points.
"Those are not principles that are put there to be an obstacle - they are put there because they're foundational for peace," Rice said.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said after meeting Abbas at Downing Street yesterday that the goal of peace talks was to ensure a secure Israel and an independent, sovereign and viable state of Palestine, as laid down by the Quartet.
In the West Bank yesterday, Israeli troops shot dead a 24-year-old local leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group said to have been involved in an attempted bombing near Tel Aviv.-Reuters/AP
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