US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell has arrived in Israel, saying it would be up to Israel to decide when Israeli-Palestinian violence has eased enough to go ahead with a US plan to resume peacemaking.
Mr Powell flew in from Egypt for talks tomorrow with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. He was met at Ben Gurion airport by Foreign Minister Mr Shimon Peres and drove with him to Jerusalem.
The US government is spearheading efforts to end nine months of bloodshed which has killed about 600 people. Since a fragile US-brokered truce took effect on June 13th the overall level of violence has dropped significantly.
However, signs of a US-Israeli rift emerged yesterday when Mr Sharon met President George W Bush in Washington.
Mr Sharon told Mr Bush that he demanded 10 days of total calm with the Palestinians before moving ahead with US plans to push forward peace efforts. Mr Bush sounded more flexible, insisting that the cycle of violence must be broken and saying there was some progress in reducing clashes between the parties.
In Alexandria today, Mr Powell told a news conference after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak: "We've had some quiet over the last several days. Nobody is claiming that the level of violence is down where anybody could say it was either realistic or zero...But at the end of the day it is Mr Sharon who will make that judgment."
But the real key to this is that at the end of the day it is the parties that will have to decide whether there is an adequate level of violence, an adequate level of quiet in order to move forward, Mr Powell added.
Accompanied by US Middle East envoy Mr William Burns, Mr Powell said he was bringing no new proposals beyond those of the US-led Mitchell committee on stopping the violence and renewing peace efforts.