Jerusalem ? Israel’s foreign minister said Saturday that no progress could be made on a U.S.-backed peace plan unless the Palestinian Authority decided to dismantle the violent Hamas group.

The comments came as Palestinians continued efforts to instead win a Hamas pledge to stop attacks.

European, U.S. and U.N. mediators were scheduled to meet today to discuss ways of salvaging the road map plan.

President Bush could dispatch National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice — whom he has called his “personal representative” to the Mideast peace process — to the region as early as next week, administration officials said.

The visit would be the latest in a series of high-level U.S. efforts to bolster the road map, which Bush launched at a June 4 Mideast summit. The plan, a blueprint for ending 33 months of violence and establishing a Palestinian state by 2005, has been hobbled by deadly bombings, shootings and missile strikes.

Secretary of State Colin Powell met Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who is holding truce talks with Hamas. U.S. envoy John Wolf has also been shuttling between the two sides.

Today, Powell, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan — the so-called quartet of Mideast mediators who drafted the road map — were scheduled to meet in Jordan to discuss ways of rescuing the plan.

A total of 42 Palestinians — four of them assailants — and 27 Israelis have been killed in escalating violence since the plan was launched.

The casualties included a Palestinian man who died Saturday of injuries sustained in an Israeli missile strike that killed a Hamas activist last week.

Also, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian militant Saturday in the West Bank city of Hebron, witnesses said. Media reports identified the man as Abdullah Kawasme, the senior Hamas leader in the area.