Israeli-Palestinian talks hosted by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended today with little sign of progress on reviving long-stalled peace negotiations beyond a vague promise to meet again.
The meeting, attended by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, focused partly on a unity deal between the Fatah and Hamas groups that has calmed factional fighting but cast a new cloud over peace prospects.
"All three of us affirmed our commitment to a two-state solution (and) agreed that a Palestinian state cannot be born of violence and terror," said Ms Rice, reading out a joint statement after the more than two-hour meeting in a Jerusalem hotel.
She said the two leaders "reiterated their acceptance of previous agreements and obligations", including a US-backed peace road map charting reciprocal steps towards a Palestinian state, and that Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas would meet again soon.
A senior US official said the Olmert-Abbas meeting would take place "within weeks" and Ms Rice said she would also return soon. A Mr Abbas aide said joint committees would meet in 10 days to prepare for his talks with Mr Olmert.
There was no joint news conference after the meeting and Mr Abbas and Mr Olmert did not appear with Ms Rice when she read the statement.
"It didn't seem like the right way to end this meeting," Ms Rice told reporters travelling with her of the decision not to hold a news conference.
When the meeting was first announced last month, expectations were high that it would look at the tough, final issues, such as the status of Jerusalem, the return of refugees and the contours of a Palestinian state.
Ms Rice declined to provide details of the discussions but said they had looked at the "political horizon" as well as concerns over a deal Mr Abbas's Fatah group signed with the Islamist movement Hamas to establish a unity government, an accord that fell short of international demands on policy towards Israel.
"I think the real value here was that they sat down here to talk to each other," Ms Rice said.