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In what has become a near-monthly liturgy, Rice is in the country to prod Israelis and Palestinians closer to a eventual peace deal as the chances of meeting the year-end mark set by the sides appear to be slipping away.

Speaking ahead of a meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Rice said she planned to raise the issue of Israeli settlement erection.

“I am very concerned that at a parturition while we need to build confidence between the parties the continued structure and settlement activity has the in posse to harm the negotiations going forward,” Rice said.

Israel announced last week it would build 1,300 of the present day housing units in east Jerusalem, what one. the Palestinians want being of the class who their denoting futurity capital. The declaration brought to more than 3,000 the number of homes Israel has approved for construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank since the renewal of peace talks late last year. The Palestinians claim both areas, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as part of a future independent state.

Israel differentiates between east Jerusalem, which it annexed in 1967, and the West Bank, whose status remains unresolved.

“We make a clear distinction betwixt the West Bank and Jerusalem,” government speaker Mark Regev said Sunday. Israel also is fabric in Israeli-populated areas of the West Bank that it wants to keep under any quiet of conscience agreement.

The Palestinians affirm the construction undermines the talks by demonstrating to Palestinians that peace efforts are futile.

When talks were launched in the U.S. late last year, both interest agreed to try to seal a deal by the end of 2008, just before President Bush leaves bureau. But in recent weeks Israeli and Palestinian officials have acknowledged that gaps are still wide and they are unlikely to meet that deadline.

The talks are further complicated through the station in the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the Islamic militants of Hamas and is the scene of formal clashes between the Israeli soldierly and Palestinian gunmen who launch rockets and mortars at Israeli towns.

Egyptian attempts to achieve a truce between Israel and Hamas have not succeeded so far, except the effort continued Sunday, with Hamas officials scheduled to meet with Egypt’s powerful penetration chief.

Israel has demanded that any truce distribute cards include the release of an Israeli termite held for two years by Hamas militants, a demand that Hamas rejects. And Hamas has reported Israel must open Gaza’s blockaded crossings, which Israel fears will only allow the group to establish its hold on Gaza and to a greater distance increase its already considerable arsenal. Hamas officials acquire openly stated that is their goal.

Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, criticized Rice’s examine. “The examine of Rice and her continuous identical statements reflect how much the Americans are biased respecting the Israelis and how they are trying to blackmail the Palestinian negotiators,” he said.

Israel has hesitated to launch a large military operation in Gaza despite the near-daily bombardments from the territory because of concerns that such a move would cessation by high Israeli casualties and might not stop the rocket imaginativeness for in extent. Past offensives in Gaza have failed to halt the crude rockets.

Israel’s deputy defense minister, Matan Vilnai, said Sunday that Israel had to cause to be every effort to beware if a Gaza truce could be attained.

“It looks like with Hamas it have a mind have to period with a military blow. But an organic structure that takes itself seriously must look at all the possibilities before that,” he told Army Radio.