Rice starts Mideast trip, sees no breakthroughs

By Arshad Mohammed

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began a Middle East visit on Sunday by playing down the chances of major progress on Israeli-Palestinian peace during her four days of talks with officials from both sides.

Rice came to the region to prepare for an international meeting the United States plans to host this year that it hopes will lead to formal peace negotiations and, eventually, the creation of a Palestinian state.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams have been formed to draft a joint document addressing "core issues" for the gathering, expected to be held late next month in Annapolis, Maryland.

"I don't expect ... that there will be any particular outcome in the sense of breakthroughs on the document," Rice told reporters as she flew to Tel Aviv. "This is really a work in progress."

Rice held separate, roughly two-hour meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak and then had dinner with Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad to gauge each side's views.

Statements from both sides suggested major gaps remained.

Olmert told Rice it was his "clear hope" a joint statement would be agreed in time for the conference but added "that's not a condition for the meeting taking place," his spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, said.

"These conversations are in their infancy," a senior U.S. official told reporters, saying substantive talks between the negotiating teams were likely to begin this week, possibly on Monday evening.