The administration's promise of more involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after largely ignoring the problem is both welcome and essential. Only the U.S. has the military, economic and political clout needed to prod the parties toward a settlement.

Restarting that difficult process requires the U.S. to focus on all of the major regional actors who can help bring about peace, along with the right balance of incentives and pressure to get them on board.

Among the new opportunities:

* Israel. By ousting Saddam, one of Israel's chief enemies, the U.S. can apply the leverage it has been reluctant to exert on its close ally to curb settlements and military attacks on Palestinians. Arab and European nations say U.S. pressure on Sharon is needed to help end the bloodshed and get both sides to the negotiating table.

* Syria. Syrian support of anti-Israeli terrorist groups operating in Lebanon impedes a pact. The U.S. is now applying diplomatic and economic pressure on Syria to cut those ties. It has shut an oil pipeline from neighboring Iraq that provided cut-rate fuel. And it has demanded that Syria hand over fugitives from Saddam's regime.

* Iran. Another Iraqi neighbor, Iran also has long funded anti-Israeli terrorists and has been estranged from the U.S. for more than two decades. Yet Tehran is grateful that U.S. forces freed Iraq's majority Shiites -- the dominant religious sect in Iran -- from Saddam's repression. What's more, U.S. forces this week bombed the southern Iraq bases of anti-Iranian guerrillas the U.S. considers to be terrorists. Such moves give the U.S. an opening to seek Iran's help in solving the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

The administration appears willing to seize some of these opportunities, including holding negotiations with new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. The administration has refused to deal with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), whom it says supports terrorism. After months of delay, the U.S. also plans to publish a ''road map'' for Israeli-Palestinian peace drafted with the United Nations (news - web sites), European Union (news - web sites) and Russia. And Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites), who soon will tour the Middle East for the first time in a year, has pledged that President Bush (news - web sites) would become ''much more active.''

Saddam's ouster has produced what one Arab newspaper calls ''Shock in Arab Capitals.'' The challenge is to act on a regionwide strategy for peace before the lava from the latest political eruptions hardens.