US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, in unusually candid remarks, said on Thursday the US was in a stalemate in efforts to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
"We're having a great deal of difficulty," Armitage told Egypt TV.
"[Palestinian] Prime Minister [Ahmed] Qureia is not able or willing to make any tough stands on the question of security; and on the other side, the Israelis are intent on not compromising either," Armitage said. "So we're at a bit of a stalemate."
Anticipating talks in the Middle East with a senior US diplomat, Israeli officials later told the White House that prospects for reviving the peace plan looked bleak.
In his meeting with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and other senior US officials, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's chief of staff, Dov Weissglass, offered little hope for re-engaging with the Palestinian Authority unless conditions change.
Israeli officials said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat effectively stripped the new prime minister of any real power over security forces, despite US pressure.
The US has been under fire for a lack of involvement in peace efforts despite threats from both sides that could sink the US-backed "road map" peace plan.
Critics said US President George W. Bush's decision this week to omit the conflict from his keynote State of the Union speech showed he was unwilling to play an active mediating role as he runs for re-election.
Still, Armitage cited a trip to the region next week by two senior US officials as evidence "we continue to be fully engaged."
The No. 2 US diplomat, who last year called the road map "very rutted and bumpy," reiterated US opposition to Israel building a barrier through the West Bank but acknowledged Washington's limited influence over the Jewish state.
"Sometimes Israel changes, sort of, the direction of the wall and sometimes we have more difficult discussions," Armitage said in the interview, a transcript of which was released by the State Department.
Israel has threatened a unilateral separation along the line of the wall snaking through the West Bank that it says is to keep out suicide bombers. Palestinians call it a bid to annex or fragment occupied land and have said they could respond by demanding a single bi-national state.
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