BEIT-UL-MOQADDAS (AFP) – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories later this month to spur Middle East peace talks, a senior Palestinian negotiator said Sunday.

Rice is to meet with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on August 25 before holding three-way talks with the top negotiators, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and senior Palestinian diplomat Ahmed Qorei, Saeb Erakat told AFP.
The two sides formally relaunched the peace process after a seven-year hiatus at a US conference in November with the goal of signing a full peace deal by the time U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.
The talks have made little visible progress since then, however, with the two sides remaining deeply divided on core issues like the status of Beit-ul-Moqaddas, the fate of Palestinian refugees, and final borders.
The talks were dealt a further blow when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced on July 30 that he will step down after a party primary in September in order to battle wide-ranging corruption allegations.
Rice was last in Israel in mid-June, when she met with leaders on both sides and strongly criticized the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying they undermined the peace process.
She has already visited the region 17 times in the past two years.