Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, has urged Palestinian and Israeli leaders to return to peace talks halted abruptly over Israel's deadly raids on the Gaza Strip.
Rice met Palestinian negotiators in the occupied West Bank earlier on Wednesday before meeting Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, and Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister.
She was seeking to persuade them to resume talks broken off because of the Gaza violence.
But Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has conditioned a resumption of peace talks with Israel only after a truce is reached in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Arab League, meeting in Cairo, has threatened to withdraw the Arab peace initiative over Israel's attacks.
In her talks with Israeli leaders, US officials said Rice would urge Israel to try harder to avoid harming innocent people in Gaza, where about half of the more than 120 Palestinians killed recently were reported to be civilians.
On Tuesday, Rice had failed to persuade Abbas to change his mind after he suspended communication with Israel because of its continuing assault on the Gaza Strip.