Rice in New York to discuss Gaza ceasefire

By Arshad Mohammed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to New York Tuesday to discuss with key powers how to get a cease-fire in Gaza that the United States says must be durable, sustainable and indefinite.

Rice was to meet foreign ministers gathering for a United Nations Security Council meetings on ending the Israeli offensive launched last month with the stated aim of stopping Palestinian rocket attacks on civilians in southern Israel.

More than 600 Palestinians have been killed and at least 2,700 wounded since Israel began its campaign in Gaza, which is controlled by the Hamas Islamist group. Nine Israelis, including three civilians hit by rocket fire, have died.

"We would like an immediate cease-fire, absolutely, an immediate cease-fire that is durable and sustainable and non-time-limited," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters at his daily briefing.

While some of the United States' allies in Europe and in the Arab world have called for an immediate cease-fire, the United States has tended to steer away from the phrase and to stress that any cessation must be durable and indefinite.

The Bush administration has consistently supported Israel's right to defend itself against Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza and McCormack's comments stopped well short of calling on Israel to halt its offensive.

The Bush administration is pressing for a cease-fire that would include three elements: a halt to rocket attacks from Gaza, the opening of border crossings into the territory and an end to smuggling into the area through tunnels from Egypt.

"There is some degree of coalescing around those elements," McCormack told reporters, playing down expectations that a Security Council resolution would emerge quickly and saying that there were still "a lot of details" to be worked out.