US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday there was still time to reach a peace deal between Palestinians and Israelis by the end of 2008.

Rice plans to host peace talks between chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurie and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Washington on July 30.

Rice said the latest round of talks, which began in the United States in November 2007 had laid a "firm foundation on which these two parties can finally end their conflict".

"There is still time for them…to reach agreement by the end of the year and we will keep working towards that goal," Rice told a news conference in Australia on Friday.

A US-mediated Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiation in November was aimed at completing a peace deal by the time President George W. Bush leaves office.

However, disputes over Jewish settlement expansion on occupied West Bank land and political troubles in the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships have delayed progress.