Rice flies to Mideast to shore up Gaza

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday pressed for Israeli-Palestinian cooperation over Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as she landed in the Middle East on a troubleshooting mission.

Ms Rice's third visit to the region this year, hastily arranged after a surge of violence, was a sign of Washington's commitment to the pullout from occupied Gaza as a possible step toward restarting stalled negotiations on a peace "road map".

"I look forward to talking with both the Israelis and the Palestinians about the need for tight coordination," Ms Rice said in Jerusalem as she met Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.

"I also look forward to talking about the need to resist any efforts by terrorists to destroy this moment of hope."

So far, the two sides have done little to coordinate on the plan and its aftermath. Contacts slipped further after recent bloodshed, the worst since a February truce.

The big dangers to the pullout, the first from settlements on land Palestinians want for a state, are militant attacks and opposition from Israeli rightists.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has vowed nothing will stop the removal of all 21 Gaza settlements and four of 120 in the West Bank under what he calls "disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians.

But beyond the withdrawal, prospects for peacemaking are worse than hazy.

Mr Sharon made a renewed commitment yesterday to the remaining West Bank settlement blocs - a pledge certain to fuel Palestinian fears that as Israel leaves Gaza it will cement its hold on the much bigger enclaves.

"This area, this bloc will be an inseparable part of Israel forever," Mr Sharon said during a visit to the settlement of Ariel, deep in the West Bank.

Palestinian officials said the long-standing call for a freeze on settlement building would be high on the agenda at their meetings with Ms Rice. They also say Israel is not working closely enough on practicalities for what will follow the Gaza withdrawal.

"So far there is no positive response from the Israelis regarding the coordination," said top negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Hours before Ms Rice arrived, Mr Sharon's deputy Ehud Olmert raised the prospect of bringing forward the mid-August start date for the evacuation of Jewish settlers to avoid further mass protests to disrupt it.

A senior Israeli official said Mr Sharon could bring up the idea when he meets Ms Rice at his desert ranch today.

But any attempt to bring forward the withdrawal would further antagonise religious settlers and their supporters who believe Jews have a biblical birthright to Gaza, where 8,500 Jews live in isolation from 1.3 million Palestinians.

Most Israelis support the Gaza pull-out, but many opponents say the land captured in the 1967 Middle East war is a gift from God and giving it up would reward the Palestinian uprising.

Palestinian militants killed five Israelis in a July 12 suicide bombing and one in a rocket attack. Israel has killed 15 Palestinians since the suicide bombing, 11 of them gunmen, and resumed airstrikes on militants.

Ms Rice praised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's orders to police last week to stop militant attacks. Ms Rice is due to meet Mr Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah tomorrow.

Israel demands that the Palestinians actually dismantle militant groups, a commitment under the road map, before there are talks on statehood. Israel has failed to meet its own commitments on freezing settlements.