The United States today announced a new diplomatic mission to mediate an end to nearly 14 months of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed and called on both sides for urgent action to unblock the path to peace.
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Mr Colin Powell jokes with the Israeli president, Mr Ariel Sharon, during a meeting in February
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But US Secretary of State Colin Powell, laying out US Middle East policy in a speech at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, offered no new proposals to end the conflict in which almost 900 people have been killed since September 2000.
Fresh violence underlined the obstacles faced by US diplomats returning to the region, where numerous international ceasefire deals have failed to take root over the past year.
Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian man as he tried to plant an explosive device near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
Three Israeli settlers were wounded in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank, and both sides traded recriminations over an Israeli tank raid that killed two Palestinians and damaged an American school in the Gaza Strip on Sunday night.
In his much-awaited policy statement, Mr Powell laid out a vision of peace, prosperity and tolerance in the Middle East and asked Israelis and Palestinians to help make it a reality.
Mr Powell, answering criticism the Bush administration has kept its distance from Middle East diplomacy, said the US was ready to take the lead in helping Israelis and Palestinians to reach a lasting truce.
He said US President Mr Bush had asked Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Mr William Burns to return to the region later this week for consultations.
Retired Marine Corps General Anthony Zinni, former commander of US forces in the Middle East, will also go to the region and stay as long as it takes to push the sides towards a ceasefire and onto the road to resuming peace talks, he said.