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Ramallah, West Bank: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Israel and the Palestinians on Tuesday to resume suspended peace negotiations and said she believed a deal was still possible by the end of the year.
Speaking at a news conference after meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, she gave no indication, however, that she had secured his agreement to return to talks.
Abbas suspended negotiations on Sunday in protest at Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip that killed more than 120 Palestinians before troops left on Monday.
Israel said it would send forces back in if cross-border rocket attacks continued.
Abbas told the news conference he wanted a complete truce in the Gaza Strip and in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has carried out raids against militants it says are planning attacks.
Referring to Washington's hopes that a deal on establishing a Palestinian state could be reached before President George W. Bush leaves office in January, Rice said: "I still believe that that can be done."
She added: "We look forward to the resumption of those negotiations as soon as possible."
Abbas said 20 children had been among dozens of civilians killed in Hamas-controlled Gaza in Israel's five-day assault, its most powerful in the territory since it withdrew settlers and its army in 2005..
"I call on the Israeli government to halt its aggression in order that we can afford the necessary atmosphere to conduct the negotiations," Abbas said, without setting any timeframe for resuming the talks on statehood issues.
Abbas broke off communications with Israel’s prime minister Ehud Olmert on Monday in protest at the ongoing offensive.
The US Secretary of State is to meet Olmert in Occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Olmert, however, told a parliamentary committee that more action is possible, saying: "What happened in recent days was not a one-off event."
"The objective is reducing the rocket-fire and weakening [militant group] Hamas. Everything is possible... air strikes, ground strikes and special operations are all being discussed."
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