Cairo, Egypt ? Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice won public support Tuesday for a Mideast peace conference from a skeptical Egypt, boosting her bid to secure critical Arab backing for pushing Israel and the Palestinians to resume formal negotiations to end their conflict.

Pressing ahead with an intense four-day shuttle diplomacy mission, Rice appeared to have convinced the Egyptians of U.S. seriousness in organizing the conference to take place in Annapolis, Md., in November or December.

After her talks here with President Hosni Mubarak and other top officials, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said at a news conference with Rice that she had given them “a lot of trust and confidence” about American intentions for the meeting.

“She has helped us to understand the American objective,” Aboul Gheit told reporters. “We feel encouraged regarding what we heard from Secretary Rice and promised her that we would help and we would help the parties as well in order to achieve the objective.”

Aboul Gheit said Rice had assured the Egyptian government that President Bush, who announced in July that the conference would be in the fall, was committed to forging an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal before he leaves office in January 2009.

“She says that she is determined and the president of the United States is determined to have a breakthrough during the remaining year of this administration,” Aboul Gheit said. “We have to believe them. I cannot doubt them.”

Just a day earlier, Aboul Gheit had spoken of postponing the conference about which Egypt and Jordan, the other main Arab player in the peace process, and Saudi Arabia had expressed serious doubts. They all fear the gathering will be merely symbolic.

Tempering his positive reaction to Rice, Aboul Gheit stressed the need for the conference to produce a document that will launch formal Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that includes a “timeline” for results.

“We have to go into the meeting ready to launch negotiations,” he said, adding that a timeline was needed to avoid “endless” talks that produce nothing.

Rice has said she does not believe it’s necessary to agree on a timeline – also a demand of the Palestinians and an idea Israelis have rejected. But she has pledged to look at different ways to mark and memorialize progress during what all sides believe will be contentious and lengthy negotiations.