US Middle East envoy Mr John Wolf is to meet Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas today in bid to salvage a US-backed peace "road map".
Mr Wolf, who according to Army Radio met Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last night, is to meet Mr Abbas in Gaza, where the Palestinian premier is also likely to meet leaders of Hamas and other factions in a bid to secure calm, a Palestinian official said.
Egyptian mediators failed yesterday to persuade Palestinian militants to call a ceasefire with Israel. US officials counselled restraint, but Mr Sharon warned he would not relax his pursuit of militants.
Last week's violence included the killing of four Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip, a Hamas suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus in which 17 died, and Israeli air attacks that killed more than 20 Palestinian militants and civilians.
Mr Sharon ruled out concessions to the Palestinians unless they cracked down on Hamas.
"We cannot achieve a political arrangement, and certainly not a peace deal, when terror runs rampant," he told parliament in a nationally televised speech, in which he said Israel "wants and needs peace".
The latest developments cast further doubt on US efforts to prop up a Middle East peace plan announced on June 4th at a summit led by US President George W. Bush.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell could visit Israel on Friday to add more weight to mediation attempts.