Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday night that her country was deeply concerned over the violence in the Palestinian territories among militants of different political factions.

Rice made her remarks at a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit after a group meeting with foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan plus the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -- Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait.

"Innocent Palestinians are caught in the crossfire and we call on all parties to stop," Rice said, calling on Palestinian factions to form a coalition government that can represent the interests of the Palestinians.

On Sunday, nine Palestinians were killed and 80 others wounded during fierce clashes among security members loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement, as well as militants in the Hamas-led interior ministry auxiliary force.

The Palestinians need a government that could "engage the international community and engage the broad consensus that a two- state solution is the answer to both the Palestinians and Israel," she told reporters.

Rice said she probed ways of supporting Abbas with eight Arab foreign ministers during the two-and-one-half group meeting.

"We talked about how to help Abbas in terms of a Palestinian government and a Palestinian authority that is fully committed to the Quartet principles," she said.

Rice denied it that the new mechanism "GCC plus two" was directed at Iran over its nuclear program, saying that there was not a new coalition.

The U.S. has been keeping close relations with GCC states before this meeting, she said.

"This is a group of states that have a lot of answers to the problems in the Middle East," she said, adding that the American and its friends in the region wanted to "promote an environment in which extremism and terrorism are fought and fought vigorously."

Asked to explain the meaning of the "New Middle East," which she created after the eruption of the Hezbollah-Israel conflict in July, Rice said the U.S. vision for a "future Middle East in which there is a democratic Palestine living in peace with its democratic Israeli neighbor."

Earlier in the day, Rice arrived here on a two-day visit to Egypt as part of a regional tour, which has already taken her to Saudi Arabia.

Source: Xinhua