White House calls for end to Mideast violence

Sun Mar 2, 2008 4:00pm EST

(Updates with comment by Obama)

CRAWFORD, Texas, March 2 (Reuters) - The United States called on Sunday for an end to clashes between Israel and the Palestinians as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed plans to visit the region this week.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspended peace negotiations with Israel in reaction to an Israeli offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 100 Palestinians, many of them civilians, others fighters. Israel launched the offensive in response to rocket attacks on southern Israel.

"The violence needs to stop and the talks need to resume," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Rice has no plans to call off a meeting this week with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a State Department spokesman said.

"Her plans remain intact," department spokesman Rob McInturff said. "We're encouraging Israel to exercise caution to avoid the loss of innocent life."

The issue also came up in the U.S. presidential campaign with Democrat Barack Obama saying Israel had the right to defend itself but should try to minimize civilian casualties.

The Illinois senator blamed the Islamic fundamentalists of Hamas for the violence.

"The violence in Gaza is the result of Hamas' decision to launch rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and Israel has a right to defend itself," he said.

"I remain very concerned about the fate of civilians and urge Israel to do all it can to avoid civilian deaths and to keep its focus on Hamas, which bears responsibility for these events."

Israel said it was acting in self-defense in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to curb cross-border rocket attacks by militants and threatened to intensify its ground and air campaign despite allegations it was using excessive force.

Washington has said it hoped Israeli-Palestinian talks can lead to a statehood deal before President George W. Bush leaves office in January. (Editing by Alan Elsner) (Reporting by David Alexander in Crawford and Chris Baltimore in Washington)




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