Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State, tries to find support from Egypt to make Palestine and Israel close together. She said a Mideast peace conference is supposed to be held in November or December.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has raised questions about Israel's control of Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. His remarks Monday came in a speech remembering a prominent right-wing parliamentarian who was killed by Palestinian militants. Mr. Olmert asked if it was necessary for Israel to control Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Israeli leaders at the start of her latest Middle East tour, but warned she did not expect a major peace breakthrough ahead of a US-sponsored meeting next month.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice played down expectations for breakthroughs as she opened a critical round of Mideast shuttle diplomacy on Sunday and warned Israel against moves that might erode confidence in the process.

Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has urged Islamic countries to boycott November's U.S.-sponsored international conference on the Middle East.

The leader of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, has urged Arab nations not to attend an upcoming U.S.-sponsored Middle East conference that will address a final peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders are holding a summit meeting today in Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are hammering out a document on Palestinian statehood. They hope to present it at an international peace conference in the United States, planned for November.

The division of the Palestinian territories caused by the Hamas-Fatah conflict must not hold back the peace process in the Middle East as a whole, Egypt's foreign minister said.

President Bush Monday, starting three days of diplomacy at the United Nations, met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and reaffirmed U.S. support for Palestinian statehood. Mr. Bush also met Middle East "Quartet" envoy Tony Blair in an effort to build momentum for a U.S.-organized Middle East peace conference in November.

U.S. President George Bush meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in New York Monday, to discuss plans for a U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference.

The American Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, will hold separate meetings in Jerusalem and Ramallah with the Israeli and Palestinian presidents after Israel declared the Gaza Strip to be "a hostile entity".

Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, has arrived in Israel for the first stop on her tour of the Middle East just before the peace conference organized by the White House for November.