Jerusalem ? Secretary of State Colin Powell began a new push Saturday for Middle East peace that has been bolstered by a change in Palestinian leadership. His message to Israel and the Palestinians: “Let’s get on with it.”

In contrast to the bitter confrontation he found on his last trip 13 months ago, Powell said Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas was “beginning to make the right statements with respect to terror and violence” and that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, too, had shown signs of cooperation.

Powell’s effort got under way with an evening meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. Today, Powell and Sharon planned talks in Jerusalem. Powell then was to cross into the West Bank for his first meeting with Abbas, who was sworn in on April 30.

At a news conference with Shalom, Powell said Israel should not “gloss over” Palestinian demands for the right to return to Israel those Palestinians and their descendants who had fled the state at its founding in 1948.

“The two sides have to deal with it in due course,” Powell said

Family members of Palestinian prisoners in Israel deliver a letter to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, hoping Secretary of State Colin Powell can aid in the release of their sons. Powell arrived Saturday in Jerusalem and will meet today with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Abbas in an effort to begin implementation of the road

Shalom said if Palestinian leaders took measures against terrorist groups, it would be “easier for us to make more gestures toward the Palestinians.”

He gave no indication that Israel would open its doors to tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees. But he said if those leaders “will be ready to move for us toward peace, we will be able to move together in order to achieve peace.”

The leaders would have to do more than just work out a cease-fire with militant groups that have terrorized Israel, Shalom said. Insisting on dismantling groups such as Hamas, Shalom said he did not think a cease-fire alone would “bring us to a better atmosphere and better future.”

Powell told reporters traveling with him from Washington that one positive step was Sharon’s apparent decision to drop Israel’s longtime insistence that all violence against its citizens must end as a condition for the peace process to move ahead.

“I haven’t heard Israelis talk of total calm,” Powell said. “They are saying they are looking for a lot of effort and intent” by the new Palestinian leaders to stop terror attacks.

To this end, Powell said the CIA was in touch with Palestinian officials, and other U.S. agencies may provide help.