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PARIS (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is closing a 2-day visit to Paris with an effort to boost Lebanon's fragile government.

Rice met today with Prime Minister Fuad Saniora (foo-AHD' sah-nee-OHR'-uh) as Lebanon faces its most serious political crisis since the end of the 1975-90 civil war. Parliament is not functioning and the government just barely, after a quarter of Cabinet members resigned. Opposition supporters have been holding a sit-in outside Saniora's office since December First, calling for his resignation and the formation of a new government.

Saniora, backed by the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, the United States and the West, has refused to step down.

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Israel's prime minister promised Monday to free 250 Palestinian prisoners and promised to improve life in the West Bank in an attempt to boost Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after Hamas' takeover in Gaza.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made the pledges at a summit in this Egyptian Red Sea resort with Abbas and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan.

The Arab leaders hope the high-profile gathering can lead to a resumption of the long-blocked peace process, rally Palestinian support behind Abbas and isolate Hamas after the Islamic militant group's stunning and bloody victory in Gaza.

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JISR DIYALA, Iraq (AP) -- Newly arrived U.S. troops southeast of Baghdad are destroying boats on the Tigris River and targeting networks bringing powerful roadside bombs from Iran as the military cracks down on Sunni and Shiite extremists from all directions. But a top U.S. commander warned on Monday that three or four times more Iraqi security forces are needed to sustain the progress in clearing the area and stanching the flow of arms and makeshift bombs into the capital. Maj. Gen. Rick Ly...

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The United States must continue to show its commitment to peace and a Palestinian state by backing moderate voices in the Palestinian government.It is helpful that other Middle East nations, concerned about the militant group Hamas, are rallying their own show of support for Palestinian moderates with this week's summit involving Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt.

Olmert displayed his own good-faith measure Monday by saying he will release 250 Palestinian members of Fatah from prison. The summit in Egypt follows a high-profile meeting between Olmert and President Bush days earlier in Washington. The meetings tend to display solidarity against Hamas, which is no friend to the peace process and certainly no friend of Israel.For certain, the summit should be an emphatic sign to Hamas, which has established few allies among rational players in the Middle East...

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It's disappointing -- and shocking -- to see top generals in Iraq openly lamenting the inadequacies of the Iraqi security forces.

It shows how deep the problems are.

Worse, it shines a spotlight on the question that illuminates what has been wrong with the Iraq effort all along: What's the plan?

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