Rice is to hold talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem on Saturday night on a cease-fire proposal package. She is also to meet with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Rice will also hold talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who has been pleading for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.

More than 600 Lebanese civilians have been killed since Israel launched a massive assault on July 12 following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah guerillas in a cross-border raid.

Hezbollah has since then rained hundreds of rockets down on northern Israel, killing dozens of Israelis.

Speaking at joint press conference in Washington with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. President George W Bush said that Rice would be charged with working with Beirut and Jerusalem to come up with an acceptable UN Security Council resolution aimed at ending the conflict in Lebanon.

During a tour to the region by Rice earlier this week, she rebuffed an international call for an immediate ceasefire, saying the aim of the United States is to bring a durable and lasting end to this conflict.