By DPA
Tel Aviv : US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Israel Wednesday on a two-day visit to prepare for a US-sponsored Middle East peace conference this autumn, a spokeswoman for the US embassy in Tel Aviv said.
Rice was slated to meet Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem in the early afternoon and have dinner with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
On Thursday, she will head to the West Bank for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Acting Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
Abbas has threatened not to attend the meeting unless Olmert agrees to a substantial breakthrough toward reviving the long-stalled peace process with Israel, while moderate Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, have also made their participation conditional on an outcome of substance.