RAMALLAH, November 7, 2008 (WAFA) - President Mahmoud Abbas called Friday on the US president-elect Barack Obama not to waste any time in getting involved in the Israel-Palestinian peace process, after the US admitted that a peace deal by the end of the year is unlikely.

Addressing a joint news conference in Ramallah with visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, President Abbas said the Palestinian leadership wanted to continue its efforts to reach a final settlement with Israel.

'We hope that the new administration will begin immediately tackling the Middle East issue so we would not waste time,' President Abbas told reporters.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied the US-sponsored Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations were a failure, affirming  these talks should lay the ground for an eventual deal.

'We knew that if that agreement was not reached by the end of the year, there would be those that would say that the Annapolis process, the negotiations, had failed. In fact, it is quite the opposite,' she said.

'While we may not yet be at the finish line, I am quite certain that if Palestinians and Israelis stay on the Annapolis course, they are going to cross that finish line and can do so relatively soon,' she added.

Rice warned Israel on Friday that Israel's ongoing settlement construction in the West Bank is hurting peace prospects.

'Settlement activity, both actions and announcements, is damaging' to the peace process, Rice told the news conference..

Rice arrived in Ramallah on Friday afternoon for talks with Palestinian leaders on the fate of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.