Rice Says She Registers Mideast Demands

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stand together following a press conference at Abbas' office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Sunday, Jan. 14, 2007. Rice launched her latest tour of the Mideast on Saturday with an effort to nudge Israel and the Palestinians closer to a political accommodation. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer) (Kevin Frayer - AP)

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- President Bush's top diplomat tried to assure Palestinians on Sunday she has heard their demands for a stronger U.S. hand to guide peace efforts with Israel. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, however, offered no new plans and gave few clues to how she views recent initiatives proposed by others.

"I have heard loud and clear the call for deeper American engagement in these processes," she said after meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "You will have my commitment to do precisely that."

Seeking to strengthen Abbas in his power struggle with the Palestinian Hamas faction, Rice said it is time "to look at the political horizon and begin to show to the Palestinian people how we might move toward a Palestinian state."

A proposed $85 million grant to train and equip the historically troubled security service loyal to Abbas would come with strings attached, Rice said. A State Department official said none of the money would go to purchase weapons. Abbas promised the money would not be misused.

The Palestinian leader, whose Fatah faction lost elections a year ago to the Islamic militants of Hamas, said the weapons were needed to impose order after weeks of Fatah-Hamas fighting that has killed 35 people.

The dispute has alarmed some of Abbas' Arab neighbors, including Jordan's King Abdullah II. He has warned of the possibility of three civil wars in the Middle East _ in Iraq, the Palestinian territories and Lebanon _ and asked for renewed U.S. diplomacy.

Rice had dinner with the king in the Amman, Jordanian capital. It was her first session of the week with Arab leaders who intend to press her to reinvigorate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

The king also warned that Iraqi reconciliation would fail if Sunni Iraqis were not engaged in their country's decision-making.

"Any political process that doesn't ensure the participation of all segments of Iraqi society will fail and will lead to more violence," Abdullah told Rice, according to a statement by his press office.

"As a key component of the Iraqi social fabric, the Iraqi Sunni community must be included as partners in building Iraq's future," said the king, a leading U.S. ally in the Mideast.

Along with other U.S. allies like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Jordan is concerned about the growing Shiite Muslim influence, stretching from Iran through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The fear is that the hardline Tehran government will dominate the Mideast and give rise to more extremism, jeopardizing a Mideast settlement and threatening those nations.

Despite signs of life in the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Rice encountered skepticism from both sides in two days of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.