Rice traveling to UN to push Gaza cease-fire

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to New York and the United Nations on Tuesday in a bid to broker a sustainable cease-fire as soon as possible to end the crisis in Gaza.

Rice plans to hold several separate meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Arab and European foreign ministers to lobby for a three-tiered U.S. truce proposal and will then attend a U.N. Security Council meeting on Gaza, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

The talks are intended "to further her efforts to bring about a cease-fire that is sustainable and durable concerning Gaza," he told reporters. The U.S. wants to see three key elements in any agreement: an end to rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and securing border crossings between Gaza and Israel and between Gaza and Egypt.

In addition to Abbas, Rice will see Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, whose country favors a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that is ensured by international monitors, as well as her British and French counterparts, David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner. Meetings with Arab officials are expected on Wednesday.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and the foreign ministers of Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco planned meetings with envoys from other Arab nations, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Security Council members. Some Arab nations want the Security Council to pass a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

McCormack said it was not clear if the council would adopt any resolution on Tuesday and said the United States could only support an immediate cease-fire if it is not time-limited and addresses the three U.S. points.

"We would like to see the violence end today," he said. "But we also want to see it end in a way that is sustainable and durable."

At the White House, press secretary Dana Perino repeated that position.

"We want to get to a durable cease-fire as soon as possible," Perino said. "And if that is immediate, then we would certainly welcome that."

Rice will be talking up the proposal aimed at achieving a lasting halt to Hamas rocket attacks that have pinpointed southern Israeli towns. The American plan would also limit a network of tunnels that have been used by Hamas to smuggle in weapons and contraband, and would also contain a third proposal pressed by Hamas — reopening crossing points on the Israeli border that have been restricted and often closed by Israeli soldiers.

On Monday, President Bush said that the violence in Gaza must stop, "but not at the expense of an agreement that does not prevent the crisis from happening again."

More than 500 Palestinians, including at least 100 civilians, have been killed in the fighting and during Israeli bombing runs. Hamas rockets and combat inside Gaza have killed at least nine Israelis.

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