US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held talks with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today, pressing a trouble-shooting mission to safeguard Israel's planned Gaza pullout after a flare-up of violence.
Ms Rice's Israeli-Palestinian agenda was interrupted by a surprise trip to Beirut, the highest-level US visit since Syria ended its 29-year military presence in Lebanon two months ago.
She began her Middle East mission, her third to the region this year, urging Israel and the Palestinians to get back to coordinating the mid-August withdrawal from occupied Gaza, which Washington hopes will help revive stalled peace moves.
The hastily arranged three-day trip followed a surge of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed and mass protests by Jewish rightists opposed to Mr Sharon's Gaza plan, developments that have aggravated tensions and complicated the withdrawal.
Ms Rice flew by helicopter for talks at Mr Sharon's ranch in southern Israel before heading to Beirut under heavy security to show support for Lebanon's new government.
She returned tonight and was due to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank tomorrow.
Mr Rice said she planned to talk to Israeli and Palestinian leaders about the "need to resist any efforts by terrorists to destroy this moment of hope".
A US official said Ms Rice found it "mildly encouraging" that Palestinian security forces had recently confronted Hamas but further action was needed against the Islamic militant group, which has posed a growing challenge to Abbas.
Mr Sharon urged Ms Rice to press Mr Abbas to crack down on armed factions as required under a US-backed "road map" peace plan.
In the latest clash, Israeli troops killed an 18-year-old Palestinian bystander in a shootout with a gunman in the West Bank city of Hebron, the army and Palestinian medics said. Two soldiers were slightly wounded.