Jerusalem - Israel and the Palestinians have a "shared responsibility" to create a better atmosphere and reality in the region, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday in Jerusalem on the first full day of her latest visit aimed at prodding the sides toward a peace treaty. Addressing a joint news conference after meeting Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Rice said she expected Israel and the Palestinians to take significant steps toward improving the quality of life and economic prospects of the Palestinians, and guaranteeing Israel's security.
"I really do think that what we need to do is to have meaningful progress toward a better life for the Palestinian people, for the economic viability for Palestinians, even as we move toward the establishment of a state," she said.
"There's a shared responsibility here for an atmosphere and a reality that can lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state based on security for Israelis and Palestinians alike, and economic viability for Palestinians," she added.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who met with Rice in a trilateral parley with Acting Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, presented her with a 35-page booklet, which, according to reports from the meeting, includes a proposal to establish a new Palestinian city, to be financed by a Jordanian businessman, near Ramallah.
Barak also said 700 Palestinian police officers would be allowed to enter the northern West Bank city of Jenin, some 50 of the hundreds of roadblocks in the West Bank would be removed, and 25 armoured vehicles would be transferred to the Palestinians.
Rice arrived in Israel on Saturday night and met in closed session with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Prior to arrival, she told reporters her latest visit - which comes only three weeks after her previous one - would focus on the "issues concerning the West Bank and issues concerning the ability to provide a better life for the people of the West Bank."
She would also, she said, "talk about how the negotiations are going.
"I'm not coming to insert American ideas into this process," she continued. "I think they are doing a lot of work on their own, but I do want to talk to them, get some sense of how it's going, see where I can be helpful."
Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have pledged to try and achieve a peace deal by the end of the year.
Livni and former Palestinian premier Ahmed Qureia have been meeting regularly to discuss the so-called core issues of the conflict, amid a news blackout on their progress.
The Israeli Yediot Ahronot daily reported Sunday that the two have held 50 secret meetings in the past few months and their aides have also met in order to clarify issues which arise in the talks between the two main negotiators.
Livni said Sunday that the aim of the talks was to achieve "content", rather than "a piece of paper."
"The idea is to find a way to have a package that the Israelis can live with, in the understanding that this is a way towards peace: on one hand, territorial compromises and concessions on peace; and on the other hand, of course, security to Israel," she said.
"I believe that this is the basic understanding also of the Palestinians, because the idea is to give them the answer to their national aspirations in a territory of their own," she added. Israel.
"We are at the start of the process," she stressed.
During her current visit, Rice is slated to hold a three-way meeting with Livni and Qureia, and will also travel to Jordan for talks with Abbas.
