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Rice to meet Middle East leaders

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday she expects Israel and the Palestinians to take "meaningful" steps to ease Palestinian economic woes and improve Israeli security during her latest Middle East mission aimed at reviving faltering peace talks.

Rice stressed that action on both issues was critical to energizing languishing efforts to reach a peace deal by year's end that leads to the creation of a Palestinian state.

As she spoke before heading into a flurry of meetings with senior officials from both sides, Israeli officials said they would ease at least some restrictions on the movement of West Bank Palestinians as part of efforts to improve the Palestinian economy and bolster moderates.

Israel's foreign minister also said she supported the idea of compensating Israeli settlers who agree to voluntarily leave their homes in the West Bank, though she said such a move was still premature.

"There is a shared responsibility here for an atmosphere and a reality that can lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state based on security for Israel and Palestinians alike and economic viability for Palestinians," Rice told a news conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

"I understand the security considerations and I would hope and I expect that we're going to be able to do some things, or that Israel and the Palestinians together will be able to do some things, that are meaningful both for security and for economic viability," Rice said.

Livni said the Israeli side was prepared to act as long as there were reciprocal security steps from the Palestinians.

"The idea is to ease the lives of the Palestinians, to help, as far as we can, in order to improve their lives, to advance and have progress," she said. "Like always, the formula is to do whatever we can as long as it doesn't affect our own security."

Livni also expressed support for offering compensation to Israeli settlers who voluntarily decide to leave their homes in the West Bank.

Some dovish Israeli lawmakers have been pushing for such legislation even before a peace deal is signed, saying it would make it easier for the country to withdraw from the West Bank as part of a future agreement, but the government hasn't endorsed it.

"I believe that someone who settled in a place and wants to leave, in keeping with the priorities of the state of Israel, the government of Israel must help him to do so," Livni said.

Still, she said it was still too early for a concrete plan.

Ahead of the meeting, Israeli defense officials said they were going to remove a major West Bank checkpoint and dozens of smaller roadblocks, allow the Palestinians to open new police stations in areas now under Israeli security control and grant more permits to merchants for access into Israel.

Rice was due to meet Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and hold three-way talks with Barak and Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad later yesterday.

Rice then returns to Jerusalem for a three-way meeting today with Livni, who is leading the Israeli negotiating team, and the Palestinian's chief negotiator Ahmed Qureia. Rice later will head back to Amman for further talks with Abbas.
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