Israeli and Palestinian Peace Talks Begin Between Ehud Olmert, Mahmoud Abbas and Condoleezza Rice

A meeting began today between the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to discuss the peace process.

However, all sides in the Jerusalem talks were seemingly keen to dampen down expectations they could achieve much in the way of concrete progress.

Ms Rice, the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, shook hands and smiled for the cameras at a hotel before beginning the discussions.

No joint press conference was scheduled to follow the meeting. A statement was expected that was most likely to give general commitments to press ahead with peace initiatives.

Ms Rice sought to keep ambitions realistic ahead of the talks, calling them "informal discussions" rather than negotiations, according to Reuters news agency.

"This is not something that I expect to move along very quickly," she said.

Earlier hopes that Ms Rice's mission could inject some new dynamism into the peace process appeared to be undermined after Mr Olmert said the US had agreed with Israel to refuse to recognise a new Palestinian coalition government.

When the talks were first announced a month ago they were hailed as the biggest effort in six years to restart peace negotiations, and came alongside new meetings of the Quartet of Middle East negotiators: the US, the UN, the EU and Russia.

However, Mr Olmert said yesterday that Israel and Washington had agreed not to recognise the new Fatah-Hamas unity government because it still failed to meet the Quartet's conditions or recognising Israel, renouncing violence and accepting previous peace agreements.

The US and Israeli positions were "totally identical on this issue", he said.

Last night, Ms Rice told reporters that the US would officially "withhold judgment" on the Palestinian coalition agreement until it was finalised. But she acknowledged that it did not appear likely to meet the Quartet's conditions.

"If there's going to be a Palestinian state, then the Quartet principles would obviously have to be recognised because ... this is the foundation for peace," she said. "I haven't seen anything to date that suggests that this is a government that's going to meet the Quartet's principles, but you know ... we will see once the government is formed."

The Palestinian side was equally gloomy.

"The meeting, which was initiated by the Americans, will be no more than a photo opportunity," an unnamed senior aide to Mr Abbas was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Mr Abbas's Fatah organisation argues that the coalition deal is the best arrangement he can get from the more radical Hamas movement, which controls the Palestinian government.

The Palestinian president's aides have also emphasised that he, not the Hamas government, will handle any negotiations with Israel.

The Palestinians had hoped today's meeting would set out more clearly the details of a future Palestinian state, including issues such as borders and the fate of Palestinian refugees. They argued that a clearer definition of what a future settlement would look like might speed up the peace process.

Yesterday Ms Rice met Mr Abbas and Mr Olmert separately.

She said: "I hope that this meeting of the three of us will be an opportunity to examine the current situation, to commit - recommit - to existing agreements but also to begin to explore and probe the political and diplomatic horizon."

Although the agreement for a new coalition Palestinian government does not meet the Quartet's conditions, it has brought a halt to the factional fighting between Hamas and Fatah that has killed more than 100 people and threatened a slide into civil war.

The Palestinians argue that Mr Abbas would risk restarting the violence if he pulled out of the agreement and they note that he heads the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which has already recognised Israel.

But Israel says Mr Abbas should distance himself from the radical elements of Hamas, and there is pressure from some sectors in Israel for the government to act.

"Placing the blame for stalling on the other side, in this case on Hamas, will not prevent terror attacks and holds no hope for the future," an editorial in the left-leaning Ha'aretz newspaper said yesterday.

"It is the responsibility of Israel's leadership to prepare itself and the nation that elected it for a daring and far-reaching political plan, even if the conditions for its implementation have not yet been created."