Rice plays down chances of Israel-Palestine deal

Rice said Israel's decision to hold a parliamentary election, scheduled for Feb. 10, had created a "different situation" that may make it "very difficult" to meet U.S. President George W. Bush's goal of an agreement by year-end.

Palestinian and top Israeli leaders have said in recent weeks that a breakthrough was out of reach. Rice, however, stopped short of formally declaring the process dead. Rice and Bush are due to leave office in January.

"Obviously, Israel is in the midst of elections and that is a constraint on the ability of any government to conclude what is the core conflict ... for Israel and the Palestinians and has been for 40 years," Rice told reporters as she flew to the region for talks with both sides.

U.S. officials have said Rice, on a four-day trip to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan and Egypt, has no intention of floating her own proposals to advance a last-minute deal.

While Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are expected to continue, Israel's political uncertainty and Barack Obama's victory in the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday leave the Bush administration with limited influence in its waning days.

Rice made clear her goal was to lay the ground for continued negotiations under the next Israeli government and the incoming Obama administration, which takes office on Jan. 20.

"Whatever happens by the end of the year, you've got a firm foundation for quickly moving this forward to a conclusion," Rice said. "I believe that what we need to do is to continue to advance the process, continue its momentum, make certain that the progress that they have achieved doesn't go backwards."

Despite extensive Israeli-Palestinian talks, there have been no signs of tangible progress on the thorniest issues -- the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Rice plans to meet senior Israeli and Palestinian officials before visiting the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- will be briefed by both sides.

With no Israeli-Palestinian deal in sight, she was considering issuing her own statement summing up the outcome of the talks, a senior Israeli official said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, head of the centrist Kadima party, is a leading contender to succeed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Her main rival is conservative former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a vocal critic of the peace process.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak of the Labor party, also a former prime minister, trails in opinion polls and is seen as a dark horse candidate to replace Olmert, who plans to step down because of a corruption scandal.

Rice is expected to meet all four Israelis, as well as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on the trip, which U.S. officials said is not likely to be her last to the region before she steps down in January.