As U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday started her latest Mideast regional tour with the aim to salvage the U.S.-sponsored peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians, Arab experts and media here didn't hold high expectations on her visit to achieve tangible results to push forward the stalled Mideast peace process.

VISIT AMID DIFFICULT SITUATION

Rice's visit to the Middle East region was seen as a visit which comes amid a "very difficult situation as the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts and attacks are deteriorating the security situation in the Gaza Strip and Israeli cities as well," said Sayed Amin Shalaby, executive director of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) and visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speak in a press conference in Ramallah, March 4, 2008. 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. (Xinhua Photo)

"Since the Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November 2007 relaunched the negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis, no progress has been achieved in the negotiations between the two sides in the past more than three months," Shalaby told Xinhua.

"What complicated the situation is that the recent Israeli excessive military operations and behavior against the Gaza Strip, termed as 'Gaza Holocaust' by Arab states, prompted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to suspend peace talks with Israel," Shalaby noted.

He added that it was expected that Rice would help persuade and exert pressure on Israel to stop its military operations and attacks on Gaza and restart the peace negotiations.

Earlier reports said Rice is facing an uphill task during the visit which came after a new round of violence between Israel and the Palestinians.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) and visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speak in a press conference in Ramallah, March 4, 2008. (Xinhua Photo)

Armed Palestinian groups on Tuesday continued firing home-made rockets into southern Israel, one day after the Israeli army withdrew ground troops from northern Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday night, Israeli army launched a new raid on east of the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, after the Israel military on Monday withdrew its ground troops from Gaza and completed a five-day incursion in the Palestinian enclave that killed more than 120 Palestinians and wounded hundreds of others.

PEACE DEAL BY END OF 2008 DOUBTED

During her visit to Egypt, the first stop of her regional tour which also took her to Israel and the Palestinians, Rice called on Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks, saying she will work toward resumption of the negotiations of the two sides as soon as possible.

Stressing the necessity of an active peace process after her talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit, Rice urged Palestinian militants to stop rocket fire against Israel, backing Israel's right to respond to the rocket attacks.

However, she added that Israel must avoid causing civilian casualties when carrying out actions in response to rocket fire.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (R) talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the Presidential Palace in Cairo March 4, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

During a joint press conference in the West Bank city Ramallah on Tuesday with Rice, Abbas called for an Israeli-Palestinian truce in order to achieve peace by the end of this year.

Although both Rice and U.S. President George W. Bush have expressed their optimism to achieve that peace goal, Shalaby noted, "frankly speaking, it appears that the current situation doesn't make people expect the Palestinian-Israeli peace deal can be achieved by the end of 2008."

"However, if the Bush administration make serious efforts to push the peace process, this goal might be achieved, which depends on how much pressure they can make on Israel," he added.

The world needs a miracle to revive the moribund Middle East peace process after the latest Israeli massacres in Gaza, the local Egyptian Mail said in an editorial on Tuesday.

HARD TO CLOSE RANKS BETWEEN PALESTINIAN FACTIONS

Rice held the Palestinian armed group Hamas responsible for the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, condemning its attacks on Israeli cities and calling for an halt of the home-make rocket fires.

For his part, Abul Gheit condemned Israel's excessive use of force against innocent civilians, which is unbalanced and unequal compared to Hamas attacks on the Israelis.

The Egyptian top diplomat also said Hamas was "part of the Palestinian equation" and would have to be dealt with in future negotiations "if they would mend their ways" to renounce violence.

Hamas on Tuesday termed Rice's visit to the Middle East as unwelcome, noting that it serves the aim of preventing Arab countries from responding to the help appeals from the Gaza Strip and comes to rein in the state of solidarity among the Palestinian people, as well as give more support to the Israeli occupation to commit new massacres.

"Achieving national reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah is essential for the negotiations both on the Palestinians track and the Palestinian-Israeli track," according to Shalaby.

However, there are reports that the United States covertly worked to oust Hamas after it won 2006 parliamentary elections, breaking the decades-long hold on power of Abbas' Fatah movement.

In June last year, Hamas fought and routed pro-Abbas security forces in Gaza Strip and seized control of the impoverished territory, separating it from the West Bank where Abbas formed a Western-backed government.

Editor: Yan