Egypt on Board for Peace Talks

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has restored Egypt's confidence in the US commitment to the Mideast peace process and won official support for peace talks this year, Reuters reports. The process is floundering for a variety of reasons, including the fact that the Bush administration has only a year left in office. Egypt is key to bringing other Arab nations on board.

"We are encouraged because she says she is determined to have a breakthrough during the remaining year of this administration," said Egypt's foreign minister. "We must set for ourselves a time frame, a target date. We cannot negotiate and carry on negotiating until the end of history." (More secretary of state stories.)