Secretary Rice heads a trilateral meeting in west Jerusalem

Sunday May 04, 2008 19:30 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC & Agencies

The U.S Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, headed on Sunday noon in west Jerusalem, a trilateral meeting involving herself, Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak and Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad.

Condoleezza Rice

Media sources reported that the meeting focused on the latest deployment of the Palestinian Authority's security forces in the West Bank city of Jenin by the end of this week.

The sources said that the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, briefed Rice on what Barak called 'Israeli army ease of restrictions of Palestinian movement' across the occupied West Bank.

Rice is expected to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and heads of the Israeli Palestinian-Israel negotiations teams, later on.

The U.S Secretary, whose country revived last November the Palestinian-Israeli peace process on basis of a two-state solution, urged earlier both sides to set the borders of the two state before the end of 2008.

Earlier, U.S President Gorge W. Bush, emphasized that a peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israelis can be achieved by the end of 2008, as he envisioned during the Annapolis peace summit, Washington hosted last November.

jerusalem | peace process | news report rami at imemc dot org