Abbas, who leads the Fatah movement, has warned that he would go ahead with early elections if the factions failed again to form the coalition government.

    A local daily reported on Sunday that progress had been made between factions, mainly the governing Hamas and rival Fatah, on the unity government talks though an agreement had yet to be reached.

    At the end of his speech, Abbas praised Egypt for its diplomatic mediation to secure a prisoner swap between Israel and the Palestinians which involves an Israeli soldier and the Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.

    For her part, Rice affirmed that the United States was completely sticking to the roadmap peace plan to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by a two-state solution, but she did not address the idea of a provisional state.

    "My work is going to be best targeted, I think, in next months on trying to accelerate progress on the roadmap, which after all would lead us then to a Palestinian state," Rice said.

    She also reasserted the U.S. support for the moderate President Abbas.

    Ahead of the visit, the governing Hamas movement slammed Rice for the tour, saying she comes to fuel the tension. And Rice also said that she would not meet any official from the Hamas-led government.

    After the news conference, Rice left the West Bank and returned to Israel, where she will meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.