US resigned to waiting with Mideast agenda till spring

"In the short run, it probably slows things down," said a senior US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It's hard to believe you're going to get very ambitious negotiations on anything in this three month period before elections."

But Washington believes that leaders that would emerge from these elections that are scheduled for January in the Palestinian territories and for March in Israel will be willing to make progress on the "road map" for peace, an international plan that calls from creation of a Palestinian state.

"In the medium run, our hope is that it is possible to make more progress on the road map, and we would go to the leaders on both sides and the new parliaments on both sides and say, 'Can we accelerate progress on the road map now?' and we hope that the winners that emerge will want to do that," the officials said Thursday.

The US administration says that "technical" discussions between Israelis and Palestinians on implementing existing agreements will continue, including an accord on borders of the Gaza Strip that was recently negotiated with the help of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The implementation of the first provision of that accord should begin on Friday with the reopening of the Rafah checkpoint between Gaza and Egypt.

That will put an end to isolation of residents of the territory that Israel left in September after 38 years of occupation.

However, other arrangements outlined in the agreement still need to be finalized, particularly provisions concerning Palestinian agricultural exports, movement of goods and people between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, restoration of Rafah airport that was heavily damaged by the Israelis, and construction of a port in Gaza.

"As the agreement is written, there really aren't at this point any political decisions that need to be taken at sort of the leadership level," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

"I think what this requires really is, at this point, a lot of hard work at the working level," the spokesman added.

Tamara Wittes, an expert with the Brookings Institution, said nobody expected any significant progress on the Middle Eastern agenda in coming months anyway.

"The issues regarding access in and out of Gaza are very urgent and I don't expect that Mr. Wolfensohn, the quartet envoy, is going to cease his efforts simply because Israel is now engaged in an election campaign," she said.

"It may be more difficult for Israel to begin discussions on the broader political issues, but I would think the narrow security and economic issues surrounding the Gaza disengagement are issues that can still be negotiated during an election campaign," Wittes pointed out.

According to David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, "US efforts between now and March may have to be low profile, but Washington need not be dormant."

Makovsky suggested that Washington press Egypt to use its influence with Palestinian armed factions to persuade them to extend a cease-fire that Cairo helped negotiate and that technically expires on December 13.

The United States could also ask Arab countries that have benefited from higher oil prices to increase their financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority, Makovsky said.

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