On her first visit to the Middle East as US Secretary of State, Ms Condoleezza Rice has asked Israel to take "hard decisions" in the interest of peace in the region. Her visit comes on the eve of the crucial meeting in Cairo today between President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Calling it "a time of opportunity", Ms Rice asked Israel to take steps to promote peace and ensure the emergence of a democratic Palestinian state.

The Cairo meeting takes place against the background of some hopeful developments. Last month, Mr Abbas was elected president by a big margin, and he has deployed security forces in the Gaza Strip to hold hardliners in check. At the same time, a hawk like Mr Sharon has given indications that he, too, is thinking in terms of peace.

If things proceed this way, there will be hope that the bloodshed in the holy land could end and a Palestinian state come into being within a practical time-frame. It all depends on how the Cairo summit goes and whether Mr Sharon is able to suppress his expansionist instincts and instead choose a realistic and peaceful course for the future.

After meeting Mr Sharon and other Israeli leaders, Ms Rice said the Quartet which crafted the roadmap - America, Russia, the EU and the UN - "stood ready" to help again. While this is welcome, one cannot but recall the fate of the roadmap, which was unveiled by President George Bush in April 2003. It provided for a complete halt to all settlements activity, a withdrawal of Israeli troops from the occupied territory, and a Palestinian state to emerge by 2005.

However, America showed no interest in following the progress on the plan. In fact, with an eye on the second term, the Bush administration kowtowed to the Zionist lobby. Receiving Mr Sharon at the White House, President Bush announced that Israel would retain "some" land in the West Bank after withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

America also did not rap Mr Sharon for his depredations in the Gaza Strip, the targeted killings, the demolition of houses and the murder of innocent Palestinian men, women and children. The roadmap was finally scuttled when Mr Bush said the 2005 deadline for a Palestinian state was "unrealistic".

If the peace process is to be revived, the new secretary of state must examine the reasons why the one unveiled in 2003 failed. If the US had kept Israel on the leash and seen to it that all provisions of the peace plan were faithfully implemented, then a Palestinian state would have come into being by 2005, and the two sides would today be negotiating the status of Al Quds. What will be the timeframe of the revived peace process no one can tell. But the crucial issue is whether there will be a change of heart in Mr Sharon.

He is a hardliner, has been responsible for not one but several massacres, and by faith does not believe in the existence of a Palestinian state. He is a firm believer in Greater Israel, and evidently thinks this is the right moment when he can achieve his aim, because the world's only superpower is with him, no matter what he does. Unless the US sees to it that Mr Sharon does not exercise a veto on America's policy for the Middle East, there is little possibility of an independent Palestinian state coming into being.