The White House said it doesn’t expect the Annapolis, Maryland, conference on the Middle East conflict to generate instant results. Instead, the meeting will be the foundation for the future negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians for a solution to the problem.

"We recognize that at the Annapolis conference we are not going to have instant results. We're going to focus right now on Annapolis and making sure that we can get to - get through that conference in a way that results in negotiations being able to be started and to be fruitful," Perino added,” Dana Perino said.

The US State Department did not released detailed dates about the conference which is scheduled for next week. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been advising the Israeli and Palestinian officials to come to terms regarding the document outlining the points of discussion for the meeting.

The main issue on which the parties disagree is how the statement for the conference should be. The Mideast conference is regarded by Israel more as a ceremonial launching of the new peace efforts, thus the statement should by more general. The Palestinians, on the other hand, believe that it would rather be a detailed plan showing how post-conference talks will proceed.

The White House spokeswoman said that the United States still believe in the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state by the time President George W Bush leaves office. That would take place in January 2009.

According to the Baltimore Sun, the Annapolis conference has been scaled back to take place Tuesday. This could be a sign that the expectations for the conference have decreased.