Special report: Israel-Palestine conflicts

    JERUSALEM, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice concluded their meeting in Jerusalem on Monday morning with an agreement to hold a three-way meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas soon, local media reported.

    Olmert and Rice agreed to continue bolstering moderate Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Chairman Abbas, and hold with him a three-way meeting in the near future, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on its website edition.

    Olmert's and Abbas' offices will coordinate the future moves, said the paper.

    The report said that Olmert and Rice also agreed to continue building the mechanisms for the transfer of U.S. and Israeli funds to the PNA.

    In addition, the two agreed that Israel would continue to work for the ease of restrictions on the Palestinians, upon which Olmert and Abbas agreed in their meeting on Dec. 23, 2006.

    In her tour to the Middle East, which started Saturday, Rice has met with senior Israeli officials, Palestinian National Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah II to discuss peace in the region.

    In her meetings both in Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah, Rice declared that one of her main objectives in the coming months was to advance the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

    At a joint press conference held Saturday evening, Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni both vowed to continue their efforts in realizing two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

    Moderate Palestinians must be given a political horizon and Israel's security must also be upheld, Livni said, stating that the goal of any political process must be the establishment of two states for two peoples "living side-by-side in peace."

    Rice, for her part, expressed agreement to that statement, saying that she believed that most Palestinians wanted to live in a place where their children could live in peace and security.

    She noted that among other things, she and Livni would discuss matters pertaining to Iran and Iraq, as well as how to advance the road map plan on Middle East peace.

    However, in a move contradictory to the Israeli obligation to the road map plan, Israel announced Monday morning the plan of constructing 44 new housing units in the settlement city of Ma'aleh Adumim in the West Bank, reported Israeli daily Ha'aretz.