US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has returned to the Middle East to discuss the peace process ahead of a visit by President George W Bush.
On her 15th visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories in less than two years, Ms Rice is expected to press both sides to stick to their avowed goal of clinching a peace deal by the end of 2008.
She is expected to urge Israel to take new steps to bolster Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's authority in the West Bank by easing travel restrictions across the occupied territory to strengthen the local economy.
The talks will be held alongside Egyptian-led efforts to broker a truce between Israel and Gaza militants that would ease an Israeli blockade on the Hamas-ruled territory, which has been sidelined in the current peace talks.
Ms Rice arrived in Tel Aviv after talks with Middle East Quartet partners - the UN, US, Russia and the EU - in London and was taken straight to Jerusalem.
She is scheduled to meet President Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Sunday.
‘Israelis have waited too long for the security they desire and they deserve. Palestinians quite frankly have waited too long for the dignity of an independent state,’ Ms Rice said in Washington on Tuesday.
She said Washington's ‘unwavering’ support for Israel should give it the courage to make ‘difficult and painful compromises’.
President Bush, who hosted a conference in November that formally restarted Middle East peace negotiations after a seven-year freeze, will visit Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt from 13 to 18 May.
Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas, meanwhile, plan to meet face to face on Monday for the third time in less than a month.
Efforts to advance the peace talks have been mired by violence in Gaza and Israel's continued settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.
