Rice to pursue Mideast peace till leaves office

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday she would leave "no stone unturned" to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal before leaving office but conceded time was running out.

Speaking to a U.S. conference on business investment in Palestinian areas, Rice said she still hoped to reach the Bush administration's goal of a peace deal by the end of 2008 that was set at a conference in Annapolis nearly a year ago.

"I still believe that we must make every effort in the time that we have to lay this foundation for peace, and that still means that we must do everything that we can ... to find an agreement between these parties by the end of the year," Rice said.

"Know too that until that moment when I leave office, I will leave no stone unturned to see if we can finally resolve this conflict," Rice said.

The Bush administration's term ends in January 2009.

"It is very difficult, there is a hard road ahead, but if we do not try, we certainly will not succeed," she said, adding she was sure negotiations would ultimately lead to a Palestinian state.

Rice has made multiple trips to the Middle East to get a peace agreement. But U.S.-sponsored negotiations have made little progress, and Israeli and Palestinian officials have expressed doubt whether the year-end target is realistic.

An additional problem has been political upheaval in Israel, where Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is trying to form a new government after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resigned over a corruption scandal.