United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that the upcoming summit on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be a “successful” one and is bound to provide a solution to the dispute.

Previously, Palestinian and Arab officials said they will shun the conference if no firm agreements are reached until then with Israel and the US does not present the meeting’s objectives.

“You can be assured that between now and the international meeting this fall, I will work, and President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert will work, very aggressively, very urgently, to lay the groundwork for a successful meeting,” Rice said during a press conference held in Ramallah with President Mahmoud Abbas.

“From my point of view a successful meeting has to be one that advances the cause of a Palestinian state,” Rice added.

The conference was announced in July by President Bush, but the meeting's date or venue weren’t established until now. Neither were the participants or agenda, issues that sparked the discontent of Palestinian officials and Arab League members.

Since Bush announced the meeting, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have been meeting regularly, but the latest developments indicate that the leaders reached an impasse on the negotiations.

Abbas urged Olmert to accept a binding agreement that would tackle core issues of the dispute and represent the basis for a long-expected peace deal, while the Israeli premier said a “declaration of intentions” is more suitable at the moment.

After four meetings, the leaders failed to reach a compromise and some of Abbas’ aides said the Palestinian leader will not attend the November meeting is Olmert continues to dodge a firm pact, comprising binding commitments.

Despite Rice’s careful approach, Abbas maintained his stance and said there is no other solution to the crisis than an agreement that would settle fundamental issues, like the status of Palestinian refugees, the future borders of a Palestinian state and Jerusalem’s status.

“We have stressed our seriousness to Secretary Rice to reach a framework agreement for implementing final status issues,” he said at the same press conference, underlining that “Time is very short.”

When asked about a possible boycott of the conference, Abbas refrained from giving a straight answer, saying “The situation is still vague for the Arab countries concerning the international meeting. Things should be clearer to them.”

Also, the Fatah leader warned that Israel’s decision to declare Gaza a “hostile entity” and impose economic sanctions against the territory can have “very serious implications.”

Israel decided to slash the electricity and fuel supplies to the Hamas-ruled salient in retaliation to the constant rocket fire targeting Israeli settlements adjacent to Gaza.

Among those militants launching rockets on Israeli territories are members of Fatah’s military wing and of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), who reiterated that they will continue the attacks until Israel ends the dispute.