U.S. monitors to study West Bank roadblocks

By Arshad Mohammed

SHANNON (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it would send monitors to study whether the removal of Israeli roadblocks was making life easier for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Flying home from a two-day trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was confident the two sides were trying hard to resolve their six-decade conflict.

Following the visit by Rice, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met to try to accelerate peace talks, which Olmert's office said had a "very good chance" of producing results by year-end.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called the talks "very serious", while Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, described them as "quite possibly the most serious talks an Israeli side has ever had with the Palestinian side".

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said "significant progress" had been made on setting the borders of a future Palestinian state, but he reported no movement on either the fate of Jerusalem or Palestinian refugees.

A Palestinian official involved in the talks responded by saying: "There has been no progress."

The meeting was overshadowed by a new criminal investigation into Olmert's affairs that has some Israeli commentators questioning his political future.

The Bush administration hopes to bring about a peace deal by the end of the year but the talks have yet to show visible progress.