While underscoring the renewed U.S. engagement, Rice urged the Israelis and Palestinians to continue their bilateral discussions. "The larger point is it is time for both parties to make a maximum effort to give this chance for peace a real chance," she said.
Tuesday's Israeli-Palestinian summit in Sharm el-Sheikh will involve not only Sharon and Abbas, but Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah as well.
Erekat, the Palestinian negotiator, said that although Abbas would declare a cease-fire against Israelis, it was unclear whether it would be honored by such militant Palestinian groups as Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, which have engaged in a campaign of violence against Israel.
In telephone interviews, leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they would study Israel's position at the summit before deciding.
"We want to see first that the Israeli side is serious and delivers the goods," said a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, Nafez Azzam.
A Hamas spokesman, Mushir Masri, said it was "premature" to declare his group's intentions, adding, "I think that the Hamas movement and the other factions are all committed to a cease-fire if the Israelis fulfill their obligations." These include releasing Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and ending assassinations of guerrilla leaders.
A senior Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Israel would halt military activities on condition that the Palestinians took tough action to stop the building and firing of rockets and mortars against Israeli targets, the destruction of weapons-smuggling tunnels under the Egyptian border and an end to incitement of hatred against Israelis.
Publicly, Israeli and Palestinian officials shared Rice's upbeat assessment that they were on the brink, as she put it, of "a really promising moment." But after her departure for Rome on Monday, officials from both sides acknowledged deep apprehension.
"In the past few days, some Israelis have started to get cold feet" about making significant new deals with the Palestinians, another senior Israeli official said on condition of anonymity. "They see what's going on in Gaza, they see the rockets still being fired -- 75 incidents in the last few days and it's still continuing -- and there's a lot of skepticism on our side" that Abbas will be able to end the attacks and disarm militant groups.
"I am very pessimistic. . . . It was a public relations visit," said Kadoura Fares, a Palestinian cabinet minister, after attending a 75-minute working lunch with Rice. He said she addressed few of the Palestinians' main concerns, including freezing Jewish settlement growth, dismantling settlement outposts and stopping Israeli construction of a security barrier between the West Bank and Israel.
"Not talking about these cornerstone issues will weaken the opportunity for establishing peace," Fares said. "I don't think the American administration is serious enough to seize this golden opportunity."
Israeli officials said Rice emphasized to them the need not to undermine Abbas as he attempts to build support for policies to end violence and return to negotiations.
Rice said she told the Israelis that the United States was "concerned" about the barrier and opposed unilateral changes in the division of territory, particularly in Jerusalem. She said she told them that the United States opposed settlement expansions in the West Bank that seemed to be "efforts to create facts on the ground" and she said Israel should honor past commitments to dismantle settlement outposts.
Wright reported from Ramallah. Correspondent Molly Moore contributed to this report.
