American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice continued to play down expectations of the meeting between her, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, saying, "If you ask people to run at this point, I think somebody is going to fall down."

The meeting began at 10 a.m. at the David Citadel Hotel and is to conclude around noon. She called the meeting "informal discussions" and added, "This is not something that I expect to move along very quickly."