World powers have demanded immediate Palestinian action to catch those behind a suicide bombing in Israel, but are also offering support for reforms aimed at halting violence and preparing Palestinians for statehood.
"We are trying to lay a foundation for a successful movement through the road map to a two-state solution," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a news conference in London last night.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
She was speaking after an international meeting, hosted by Prime Minister Tony Blair, that tried to underpin efforts by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to implement reforms, halt violence and resume peacemaking with Israel after the death last year of veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
"We've got a script that is clearer today than ever before," Mr Blair told a news conference with Mr Abbas after the meeting.
Meeting on the sidelines, the quartet that sponsored the 2003 "road map" to peace - the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States - urged "immediate action by the Palestinian Authority to apprehend and bring to justice the perpetrators" of the Tel Aviv bomb that killed five people.
Mr Abbas, again condemning Friday's attack, which undermined a three-week-old truce with Israel, said security reforms were driven by Palestinian interests, not outside demands.
He told the news conference with Mr Blair that Palestinians were committed to preventing attacks and said reforms had "not come from pressures from the quartet or any state within it".
Mr Abbas complained that Israel had not allowed the Palestinian interior minister to visit the Tel Aviv suicide bomber's home town of Tulkarm in the West Bank to investigate, but promised an unrelenting drive to track down the culprits.
Ratcheting up pressure on Syria, which Washington accuses of harbouring militants, Ms Rice cited what she called "firm evidence" the Islamic Jihad group that claimed responsibility for the Tel Aviv bombing had helped plan it from Damascus.
"And so the Syrians have a lot to answer for," Ms Rice added.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, whose country was not represented at the London talks, attacked Mr Abbas for trying to win the cooperation of Palestinian militants, not crush them.
The London meeting, attended by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as well as Arab and European foreign ministers, told Israelis and Palestinians they must both meet their obligations under the road map, long stalled by violence.
Participants offered Palestinians support for security forces, for parliamentary polls and for efforts to ensure order when Israel removes Jewish settlers from Gaza later this year. In return the Palestinians vowed to pursue security reforms, hold elections on schedule in July and fight corruption.
A final statement said the path to peace required direct talks leading to "a safe and secure Israel and a sovereign, independent, viable, democratic and territorially contiguous Palestine, living side by side in peace and security".