TEL AVIV, March 4 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Israel on Tuesday after saying she hoped to salvage peace talks that Palestinians suspended in protest at an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Rice flew to Tel Aviv from Cairo, where she had consulted with Egyptian leaders on ways to defuse Arab ire over the crisis in Gaza, where Israel killed more than 125 Palestinians, many of them civilians, in a five-day assault that ended on Monday.

Israel has threatened to take further military action in the Hamas-controlled territory to curb cross-border rocket attacks.

The Bush administration wants an accord by year's end, but progress has been stymied by fighting and Israeli construction in occupied West Bank land where Palestinians want statehood.

Rice was scheduled to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, and then to dine separately with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. (Reporting by Sue Pleming, Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Jeffrey Heller)

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