Jerusalem: Israel's foreign minister told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday that any deal Washington hoped to broker for a Palestinian state would not be implemented until Israel's security was assured.
"They (the Palestinians) need to understand that the
implementation of future understandings would be implemented only according to the phases of the road map - the meaning is security for Israel first and then the establishment of a Palestinian state," Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters, with Rice at her side.
"Nobody wants to see another terror state in the region,"
Livni said, an indirect reference to fears Hamas Islamists whotook over the Gaza Strip in June could do the same in the WestBank, where President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction holds sway.
Livni, Israel's chief negotiator for the conference, said
the Jewish state was prepared to move forward in discussions with the Palestinians, although the situation was "complicated... more than ever".
On her flight to Israel, Rice told reporters it was unlikely
there would be agreement on a document during her two-day trip.
Rice, who later had a working lunch with Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert, told Livni she hoped her visit would help to "advance
the work you are doing bilaterally with the Palestinians as well as continuing to plan for the Annapolis meetings".
Rice, on her third visit in six weeks to the region, is
trying to bridge gaps between both sides ahead of a US-hostedconference expected in the last week of November in Annapolis,Maryland, although no official date has been announced.
Israel and the Palestinians are still at odds over a joint
document for the conference, which would serve as a launchingpad for negotiations on core issues such as borders and the fateof Jerusalem and millions of Palestinian refugees.
Media reports said that Olmert told his Cabinet he didn't regard the joint declaration of principles to be a prerequisite for the conference.
Rice said on Saturday she did not expect Israel and the Palestinians would agree in a weekend of talks with her on a joint document for a conference on Palestinian
statehood.
