Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, arrived in London this afternoon to brief Tony Blair and Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, on the results of her week-long tour of the Middle East.

The focus of the talks is likely to be her attempt to restart Middle East peace efforts. She won an agreement from Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, and President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, to hold a summit meeting in the coming weeks.

She has also arranged for the contact group on the Middle East — made up of America, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations — to convene in Washington early next month.

The diplomatic push is seen as a move by the Bush Administration to win acceptance for America’s wider policy in the Middle East. Ms Rice sought support from friendly Arab governments like Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for President Bush’s decision to send extra forces into Iraq to help stabilise Baghdad.

The Arabs and the Europeans are adamant that no progress is likely in Iraq unless other issues in the region are tackled, principally the Palestinian-Israel conflict.

That said, there seems little hope of a breakthrough after more than six years of violent confrontation. A road map for the creation of a "two-state" solution was agreed by the Israelis and the Palestinians nearly four years ago, but has yet to be acted on.

The Israeli coalition government under Mr Olmert is very weak and there have been repeated calls for his resignation because of the failure of this summer’s war in Lebanon. On the Palestinian side, Mr Abbas is locked in an increasingly violent power struggle with the militant group Hamas, which won last year’s elections and currently forms the Government.

In these circumstances it is very unlikely that either side has the will or the ability to make serious concessions necessary to launch a new peace effort.

There are suspicions that America’s diplomatic initiative is little more than window dressing to show the world, particularly Arab public opinion, that it is doing something.

Washington’s main focus remains trying to resolve the disastrous situation in Iraq and to blunt what it regards as the increasing power in the region of Iran.

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