The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Shannon

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Israelis and Palestinians on Thursday to hold serious talks on creating a Palestinian state, insisting a looming peace summit be meaningful. "The international meeting has to be serious. It has to be substantive," Rice told a news conference with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on a visit overshadowed by Israel declaring that the Gaza Strip was a "hostile entity." "The issue here is to move the process forward, to a document that will help lay a foundation so there can be serious negotiations on the establishment of a Palestinian state as soon as possible," Rice added. She spent two hours locked in talks with Abbas and his prime minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah, before a second meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to prepare for the US-sponsored conference expected in November.