Rice vows to pursue Middle East peace deal

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday she will continue to pursue a Middle East peace deal before the end of this year and urged both Israel and the Palestinians to do more for the deal.

"We must do everything that we can with the negotiating partners to get to the Annapolis solution and that would be to find an agreement between these parties by the end of the year," Rice said during an address to a Palestinian investment forum at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce headquarters in Washington.

"It is very difficult, there's a hard road ahead, but if we do not try, we almost certainly will not succeed," Rice said.

"Until that moment when I leave office, I will leave no stone unturned to see if we can finally resolve this conflict," Rice said, urging both Israel and the Palestinian side to "redouble efforts" to achieve the peace deal.

The United States hosted a Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland last year, but the Middle East peace process has made little progress since then