Clinton in Egypt as Middle East talks drive flags

By Andrew Quinn

CAIRO (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton brought her flagging effort to revive Middle East peace talks to Cairo on Tuesday with little sign that her round of diplomacy has helped break the impasse.

After four days of talks with Israeli, Palestinian and Arab leaders, a senior U.S. official said Washington was assessing whether its drive to persuade Israel and the Palestinians to resume negotiations had any chance of success and might consider alternatives if the answer was no.

Clinton was expected to meet President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday on the last leg of her tour, during which Arab anger has flared over signs the Obama administration no longer backs Palestinian demands that Israel immediately stop building settlements on occupied territory in the West Bank.

Clinton has tried to allay those fears. However, a trip intended to give new momentum to the peace effort has instead caused many analysts to ask whether it had dealt it a setback.

With no sign of movement on the important issues, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley was asked if the United States might consider setting out its own take-it-or-leave-it framework for a peace deal.

"There has been some progress but clearly at this point not enough," Crowley told reporters on Clinton's plane from Morocco, where she had been attending a development forum and had a series of meetings with Middle East leaders.

"Based on these discussions, we'll say 'is there potential in this current structure or do we need to look at alternatives?' They are available," he said.