On her first visit to the Middle East as Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice pledged to give the Palestinian Authority $40 million in immediate aid as she repeated her call for “two states living side by side in peace”. Rice also said the Bush administration was willing to place monitors inside Israel and the Occupied Territories if the two sides agreed to a ceasefire. On her two-day visit, Rice met with both Prime Minister Gen. Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmood Abbas. On Tuesday Sharon and Abbas plan to meet for the highest level talks between the two sides since the intifada began in 2000.