RAMALLAH, May 4: The year-end goal for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is still “achievable,” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday, even as both sides question whether such a goal is realistic.

Speaking at a news conference in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Rice also urged Israel not to prejudice a final deal — a reference to continued Israeli settlement activity. And in unusually pointed criticism, Rice suggested the Israeli Government could do more to improve life for West Bank residents. Washington has been pushing for a resolution of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the end of U.S. President George W. Bush’s tenure in January 2009.

But Palestinians say Israel is undermining peace moves through its continued settlement activity, a far-flung network of Israeli travel barriers in the West Bank and continued Israeli arrest raids in areas nominally under the control of Palestinian control. Israel maintains the Palestinians cannot be relied on to provide adequate security. And both sides have expressed scepticism about reaching a deal by the end of the year.

For all the problems, Rice said in Ramallah, “We continue to believe it is an achievable goal to have an agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis by the end of the year.” “We are trying to look not just at quantity but also quality of improvements,” she said, adding that she has held “extensive discussions” with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on the matter. Barak has to authorise any roadblock removals. After nearly a year as defense minister, the skein of roadblocks remains barely changed.