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The national unity government: supported in the Palestinian territories, and prohibited in Lebanon.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Israel Wednesday on the third leg of a Middle East tour. She will hold talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah before heading to Jerusalem for a private dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

On Thursday, Rice will meet with her Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Amir Peretz in Jerusalem. She flew in from Egypt, a key US ally in the region. Rice said after meeting with Egyptian officials and ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council, that she discussed ways to back Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora. In a joint press conference with her Egyptian counterpart Ahmad Abul-Ghait, the top American diplomat said discussions focused on ways to support the Lebanese government in the face of what she described as "a state within a state."

Rice also urged Palestinians to help Abbas form a national unity government that will respect principles set out by the so called "Quartet" and can engage the broad consensus that a two-state solution is the answer.

Rice denied that her meeting with the eight Arab foreign ministers represents an axis or some sort of alliance that has formed in the region. She said: "This is not a new coalition by any stretch of the imagination. This is a group of states that have a lot of answers to the problems of the Middle East ... that wants to promote an environment in which extremism and terrorism are fought and fought vigorously."