Rice attempts to assure Palestinians

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday tried to assure Palestinians that their demands for more US input to help with peace efforts with Israel had been heard.

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

After her meeting with Abbas, Rice, during a press conference denied suggestions that Washington was too busy with Iraq and Iran concerns to have any significant impact on the Israeli-Palestinian peace-plans.

"The establishment of a Palestinian state should be pursued on its own merits, not because of anything else - not because of Iran, not because of Iraq, not because of anything.

"The Palestinian people have waited a long time for their own state... and if there is anything that I can do and that the president can do to finally realise that day, why wouldn't we want to do that?"

Rice had dinner with Jordan's King Abdullah II on Sunday in Amman. "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 US ally in the Mideast.

Rice is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Occupied Jerusalem later today. Rice, who is on a week-long visit to the region in an attempt to garner support for US President George Bush's latest Iraq strategy, is also due to visit Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.