(Adds Rice, Miliband quotes; talks continue on Thursday, paragraphs 15-19) By Sue Pleming UNITED NATIONS, Jan 7 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday she had pressed Israel to seriously consider an Egyptian ceasefire plan for Gaza as the U.N. Security Council struggled to find a common approach. Rice spoke by telephone on Wednesday to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and said she had detailed discussions with them on the conditions on the ground in Gaza as well as the Egyptian initiative. "We're supporting that initiative. I've been in very close discussions with my Arab colleagues, but also with the Israelis, about the importance of moving that initiative forward," she said. The plan offered by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak seeks to end the 12-day offensive that Israel launched with the declared aim of suppressing rocket fire from Hamas Islamist militants on its southern towns. The Egyptian plan, partly brokered by France, calls for an end to the rocket attacks on Israel, the opening of Gaza border crossings and an end to weapons smuggling into Gaza. In Israel, officials said they accepted the "principles" of the proposal, but the details needed to be worked out. Rice said she had also spoken to the Israelis about the need for a pause in violence, as happened on Wednesday for three hours, to allow for humanitarian aid to get through. "That needs to be repeated again and again," she said of the three-hour truce. More than 650 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since the Israeli offensive began last month, according to medical officials. Ten Israelis, including three civilians hit by rocket fire, have been killed. COUNCIL SPLIT Rice, who extended her visit to New York by another day, also sought to convince Arab ministers at the United Nations there was no need to move ahead with a Libyan-drafted resolution on Gaza which the United States and others view as strongly anti-Israeli. Foreign ministers from Britain, France and the United States held several meetings with their Arab colleagues and proposed a more muted U.N. Security Council statement rather than a binding resolution to end the violence. The Libyan draft resolution, which focuses heavily on Israel's actions and makes only a fleeting reference to Palestinian rocket-firing, "demands an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip." The nonbinding statement drafted by the three Western powers contains no demands but "stresses the urgent need for an immediate and durable ceasefire". It also voices strong concern over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. France's U.N. ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, the current Security Council president, said after council consultations there was no agreement on either text. "We believe there is still work to do," Rice told reporters after further discussions between Western and Arab ministers. "The world needs to hear the united voice of the Security Council," said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who also extended his trip to New York to try to reach a common strategy with Arab delegates. Arab ministers said they were still not close to a deal and talks were to resume at the United Nations with ministers from both camps at 1000 EST (1500 GMT) on Thursday. Egyptian Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz insisted that a resolution was necessary to halt the fighting and that the Arabs were prepared to accept amendments. "We do not accept the presidential statement as it stands alone, meaning that the ministers can ... go home and arrive to find the fighting still going on," he told reporters. A U.S. official traveling with Rice made clear there were some differences with Mubarak's initiative but that Washington was particularly supportive of Egypt's efforts to work with the Israelis. "Some of the specifics on an immediate ceasefire are not consistent with what we were laying out," said a U.S. official, adding that the United States wanted a "durable and sustainable" ceasefire without any time limit. (Additional reporting by Claudia Parsons, Patrick Worsnip and Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Anthony Boadle)
Students cheer during a rally in support of Israel at the Sixth I Historic Synagogue in Washington January 7, 2009. REUTERS/Molly Riley (UNITED STATES) ...
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