The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Berlin

The United States and other peace brokers fretted Tuesday over the fragility of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks by calling for a truce in Hamas-run Gaza to last and Israel to freeze settlements.

The appeal from the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and United States followed international pledges of 242 million dollars to bolster the Palestinian police and justice system to help pave the way to a viable state. Following a series of meetings here, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters that a peace agreement could still be framed before President George W. Bush leaves office in January.

"I continue to be hopeful that we can reach the solution by the end of the year as envisioned by Annapolis," said Rice flanked by her counterparts from the other members of the so-called quartet.

At US-sponsored talks in Annapolis, Maryland last November, Israel and the Palestinians revived negotiations toward resolving core problems like the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a future Palestinian state and refugees.

But the quartet acknowledged difficulties by stressing "the urgent need for tangible progress toward" a deal this year for "an independent and viable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, and an end to the conflict."

A senior US official told reporters that the negotiations remained complicated by both events in Gaza-which is run by the extremist Hamas movement-and by volatile Israeli domestic politics.

"There was a recognition throughout the conversations today that the situation on the ground is very fragile because of Gaza," he said.

US Generals William Fraser and James Jones are expected to return to the West Bank and Israel to resume their roles in seeking to improve the security situation, the official said.

Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip slammed into southern Israel on Tuesday, the first such attacks since the truce came into effect on June 19.

One landed in the courtyard of a house and caused some damage and the other landed in a field.