US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell is to talk with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to bolster an unsteady ceasefire and clear the way for implementing a US blueprint for peace.
Mr Powell meets Palestinian President Mr Yasser Arafat at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah this morning, before joining Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon for a working dinner at his Jerusalem residence at 6.30 p.m..
Mr Sharon returns home from a White House meeting with President George W. Bush that raised speculation in Israel of a rift between the two on whether the US-sponsored peace plan would kick in if violence did not cease.
But Mr Powell appeared to brush aside the suggestion in remarks yesterday, saying it was up to Mr Sharon to decide when violence had eased enough to push ahead with a peace plan by former US senator Mr George Mitchell's committee.
Under the Mitchell plan, the sides must make confidence-building gestures, such as a freeze of Jewish settlement building after a truce and a cooling-off period have been implemented.
"Nobody is claiming that the level of violence is down where anybody could say it was either realistic or zero . . . But at the end of the day it is Mr Sharon who will make that judgment," Mr Powell said in Egypt yesterday after meeting President Mr Hosni Mubarak.
Around 600 people have been killed in nine months of fighting since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted last September after peace talks stalled.