US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has promised that a US-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian conference would be serious and substantive.
Confirming it would take place in Annapolis in the US state of Maryland, Ms Rice insisted the meeting would advance the cause of the establishment of a Palestinian state.
'We frankly have better things to do than invite people to Annapolis for a photo op,' she said.
Although the venue for the US-sponsored conference was expected, Ms Rice's comments following talks with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas were the first official confirmation.
The date and participants have yet to be announced.
She was addressing a joint news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah following four hours of talks with Mr Abbas
Mr Abbas has met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert four times in two months to prepare for the meeting, and newly created negotiating teams are trying to hammer out a joint document ahead of the conference.
Ms Rice warned yesterday in Israel that she did not expect a major peace breakthrough ahead of the talks.
She said that Israel's seizure of Arab land near Jerusalem had seriously eroded confidence.
She was responding to a question about Israel's confiscation of land between occupied east Jerusalem and the key West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim last week, reviving fears that the territory could be split in two.
The office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who later met Ms Rice, declined to make any comment on her remarks.
Although Israel informed her that the seized land was earmarked for a road to improve Palestinian mobility and was not imminent, Ms Rice said the timing of such projects was too sensitive in the run-up to the US-sponsored peace conference.
