Rice wins Egyptian support for Mideast peace conference

Egypt, a key mediator between Arabs and Israel, and other key Arab allies have expressed deep scepticism over the conference in past weeks, fearing it would be merely symbolic without making real progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

A day earlier, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit spoke of postponing it.

However Aboul Gheit said his meeting with Rice on Tuesday "gives us a lot of trust and confidence" about American intentions for the conference, though he cautioned that preparations to hammer out the agenda could take more time.

Rice "has helped us to understand the American objective. She shed a great deal of light on the current American efforts," he told reporters.

"We feel encouraged regarding what we heard from Rice and promised her that we would help the parties as well in order to achieve the objective which is launching permanent status negotiations that would lead to establishment of a Palestinian state on both the Palestinian territories," he said.

Rice and Aboul Gheit said the timing of the conference depended on progress in Israeli-Palestinian talks on hammering out an agreement to be sealed at the gathering, expected to be held in Annapolis, Maryland.

The Palestinians want the document to address core issues of the peace negotiations, while Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wants a vaguer statement. - DDNEWS