JERUSALEM (AFP) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Israeli and Palestinian leaders to expand a fledgling ceasefire as a step toward reviving their moribund peace process and easing conditions for millions of Palestinians.

Rice met with moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank town of Jericho and then with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem as the fragile truce covering the troubled Gaza Strip enclave entered its fifth day.

"We hope (the truce) will be consolidated so that it can be extended because we would hope in time for a comprehensive ceasefire," Rice said during a joint news conference with Abbas -- a message she repeated after her Jerusalem talks.

The ceasefire has become a main focus of peacemaking efforts after Abbas acknowledged the failure of a months-long bid to create a new Palestinian government amenable to Israel and the West.

Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo said "unprecedented political measures" would soon be announced following the collapse of the power-sharing talks.

Israel, the U.S. and the European Union have imposed a devastating aid boycott on the Hamas-led government because it refuses international demands to renounce violence or recognize Israel's right to exist.

The boycott has caused severe hardship for the Palestinians and fed pressure, notably from moderate Arab states, for the U.S. to make a more concerted effort to end the stalemate.

After her talks in Israel, Rice met at a Dead Sea resort in neighboring Jordan with foreign ministers from the six Persian Gulf states, Jordan and Egypt, who renewed the appeal, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said.

Gheit told reporters the Arab ministers urged Rice "to encourage Israel to soften the measures that they have been applying, at least in the West Bank".

He said the foreign ministers also backed the demands for a widening of the ceasefire.

Under the current terms of the truce, Palestinian armed groups in Gaza agreed to halt rocket attacks against the Jewish state in exchange for an Israeli troop withdrawal from the territory.

Despite isolated rocket fire the truce has held, ending five months of bloodshed in the Gaza Strip which has left some 400 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers dead in the territory.

Israeli officials said that if the Gaza ceasefire succeeded, they would be willing to extend it to cover the West Bank and take steps to ease onerous travel restrictions on Palestinians in both areas -- something Rice has been urging for months.

"If the ceasefire works in Gaza, you can duplicate in the West Bank," said foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev shortly before Rice met with her Israeli counterpart, Tzipi Livni, who is also deputy prime minister.