US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to push Palestinians and Israelis toward a middle ground in drafting a joint document seen as key to the success of a US-hosted peace conference this year.

After meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Rice said the document should 'seriously and substantively' address the core issues of the conflict -- a sharp contrast with Israeli hopes to keep it as vague as possible.

However, she also played down Palestinian calls for a timeframe to resolve the thorniest issues in the dispute such as borders, the future of Jerusalem and the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees.

Rice made the comments as she shuttled between Israeli and Palestinian officials during a four-day visit to the region to lay the groundwork for the meeting that the United States plans to hold in Annapolis, Maryland in late November.

In a trip that is unusually long for the US secretary of state, Rice appeared to try to quell concerns that the Bush administration is only paying lip service to Israeli-Palestinian peace after years of what critics regard as relative neglect. Reuters