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Rice: Gaza border deal reachedU.S. diplomat extends Mideast visit to help with talks
 Condoleezza Rice announced the deal Tuesday in Jerusalem. SPECIAL REPORT
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YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSJERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli and Palestinian leaders have reached an agreement about Gaza border crossings, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced Tuesday. "This agreement is a good step forward," Rice said. "With the international community, Israel and the Palestinian Authority must keep working hard to make these measures work in practice. As they are implemented, trust can grow." Palestinians have been trying to relax Israel's border restrictions to help the region's ailing economy after the pullout of Israeli forces and Jewish settlers earlier this year, but Israel says security measures are necessary to protect against terrorism. (Watch Rice discuss important deal in Israeli-Palestinian relations -- 2:20) Rice brokered overnight negotiations on the Gaza impasse after extending her visit to the region. She met separately Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. "Prime Minister Sharon and President Abbas have shown real statesmanship in making the decisions that led to this agreement," Rice said. "Meanwhile, our commitment to security is strong as always." Israeli troops and settlers withdrew from Gaza in September after decades of occupation. Sharon said the pullout and the withdrawal of Israelis from four small areas of the West Bank was part of a plan to reinvigorate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Rice is in the region to mark the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin. The ease of movement for people and goods in and out of Gaza has been a central issue since Israel's historic pullout. Israel removed Jewish settlers in August, and the military pulled out in September. Palestinians say they cannot build a viable economy without freedom of movement into Israel, across to the West Bank, and into Egypt on the southern side of Gaza. But Israeli officials point out that terrorists have frequently used the border crossing to Egypt at Rafa to transport bombs and other weapons. Israeli officials have said the "reality on the ground" -- meaning the extent to which militant groups refrained from attacks -- would determine the restrictions at the borders. Militants have launched rockets into Israel from Gaza in recent weeks, and Israel responded with aerial attacks on what the military called terrorist infrastructure, but overall the violence has been kept to a relative minimum. At a news conference Monday before the agreement was reached, Rice said she and Abbas had "talked about the need to support the democratic process here in the Palestinian territories, and also the need to condemn and fight terror." She also said the U.S.-backed "road map" for peace in the region obligates the Palestinian Authority "to fight terror and dismantle the infrastructure of terror." Abbas said he and Rice agreed on several issues involving movement in and out of Gaza, and hopes there will soon be "an opening for our people in Gaza" as well as "the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip." 
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