Aswan, Egypt ? On her first stop in a drive through the Middle East to breathe life into a long-dormant peace process, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice focused on rallying Arab allies to revive an old initiative.

Meeting with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates – the so-called Arab Quartet – Rice emphasized the need for an Arab-Israeli peace process to parallel the push for peace between Palestinians and Israel.

“Peace is important; to build peace, you need to do it in a number of different directions at the same time, and in our judgment, that includes an Arab-Israeli reconciliation,” said a senior administration official, who declined to be identified.

Rice will meet today with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak before heading to the West Bank and Jerusalem for separate talks later in the day with the Palestinian and Israeli leaders. She will fly to Amman on Monday to meet with King Abdullah of Jordan.

Of the 22 members of the Arab League, only Egypt and Jordan have made peace with Israel. Other Arab states have suggested they would not agree to peace until Israel has reached an accommodation with the Palestinians.

Rice timed her trip partly to be able to talk with Arab leaders before a scheduled Arab League summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, later this month.

“You need the energy and the help of moving forward on the Arab-Israeli side – not at the end of the process but earlier,” Rice said.

The 2002 initiative, proposed by Saudi Arabia, offers peace and normal relations with Israel in return for full withdrawal from land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

The plan also calls for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and allowing Palestinian refugees the right to return to homes in Israel.

While denying she has asked for changes to the initiative, Rice indicated that she hopes the plan could be relaunched to include more active diplomacy toward Israel.

Rice also left open the possibility that the United States may put forward its own proposals on those core issues that have dogged past peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

“I don’t rule out that at some point that might be a useful thing to do,” Rice said.

The Bush administration has said for years that it would not introduce an American solution to the peace process.