I wanted to make two points. Point one, that there was a discussion with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian issue in particular and Lebanon also and the security, political, as well as the humanitarian issues that Ms. Kane dealt with were discussed. There is still an issue of how the Council can contribute positively to the situation and we have expressed of course our role with regard to promoting the vision of two states and the activities undertaken by the President, by Secretary Rice, by National Security Advisor Hadley, by quite a number of other people from the administration to promote progress. And we took note of some recent progress with regard to agreement between the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister and the Defense Minister of Israel to improve the situation in the West Bank, Jenin being one of the key examples.

Second issue besides Lebanon and Israel/Palestine that we raised is that we will distribute today, redistribute the PRST with regard to Burma. It is very important that given the upcoming referendum and elections that the Council sends a strong message, clear message, that the process needs to be credible and for it to be credible a number of steps have to be taken. There are disturbing sights that the process is not a credible process. The Council cannot be, should not be silent given our earlier statements. The Council’s PRST earlier with regard to Burma and the situation that’s enfolding. The People of Burma deserve support from the Council, from the international community. What happens there is important not only for the more than sixty million people of Burma, for the democratic opposition, but also for the region and for the world. So we’re going to distribute a PRST under other matters, I raised that already this morning and then we’ll have experts meeting tomorrow. Thank you very much.

Reporter: Mr. Ambassador, just one question, while the Nahal Oz fuel terminal has been reopened today Kane had said that UN efforts are still be hampered by Israeli operations, what are you thoughts on that?

Ambassador Khalilzad: Well, of course that situation is complex and difficult. We condemn any attacks against civilians. There are terrorist rocket attacks that kill Israelis to be condemned but we condemn all loss of innocent lives. At the same time the attacks against crossings by elements of Hamas, by Hamas, impacts the supply of humanitarian assistance. It seems that Hamas believes that the increased suffering of the Palestinians benefits them because they are attacking crossings through which humanitarian assistance comes to the people of Gaza. Of course we recognize the right of Israel to defend itself - to protect itself but at the same time we – it’s our view that in exercising that right, Israel needs to be mindful of the civilian population and minimize civilian losses. And also Israel has promised and has responsibilities in terms of the humanitarian situation. It has stated repeatedly it will not allow a humanitarian crisis to develop in Gaza.

Reporter: Mr. Ambassador, on another subject. The Security Council heard two fairly grim reports on the situation in Darfur yesterday and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is hearing more today, including from Mr. Williamson. What is the U.S. Mission to the UN doing concretely to prepare to incentivize those people in Sudan who are impeding things or to get the needed resources that UNAMID needs?

Ambassador Khalilzad: Well, first we are working together with several colleagues - the United Kingdom, France - to come up with a timeline and benchmarks with regard to the different pillars. On the UNAMID pillar, what needs to happen by when, second on the political, to incentivize and encourage a timeline in the political process and also on the humanitarian track. Certainly the regional dimension is also important and we will once we have finalized that, and that’s the current focus, we will move forward with it with the Secretariat. It’s very important that we see progress on all these tracks. You are absolutely right that the reports yesterday were of concern, discouraging, depressing. That despite the effort – although there has been some improvement in the operations of UNAMID compared to AMIS before but that the level of violence is high. The humanitarian situation is difficult. The political process has not moved forward.

Reporter: I’m sorry sir, (inaudible) do you plan – you said to submit these benchmarks to the Secretariat as opposed to putting a draft resolution to the Security Council?

Ambassador Khalilzad: Well, we will look at the option also of the Security Council but we will want to make sure we are engaging the Secretariat on it as well as we finalize the effort.

Reporter: On Burma, what are the chances of getting China on board on this PRST because you introduced it quite a while ago and there’s been a lot of negotiation and they don’t seem to indicate much chance of adopting it?

Ambassador Khalilzad: Well, you may not be entirely in the picture in terms of activities that have been taking place over the past couple of weeks since the initial introduction. There has been an effort to see if the regime in Myanmar would take some the steps necessary for a credible process or for a message to be made available, to be presented to them on the behalf of the international community. Those efforts have not proven to have been successful so we are at a time that a PRST is the appropriate mechanism for expressing – for sending a strong message to the regime but also to the audience – the people of Burma and to the world. The Council cannot be silent – should not be silent in the face of what has happened and what has not happened. Thank you very much.