US Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday wrapped up a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories aimed at energizing the faltering Middle East peace talks.

Cheney had breakfast with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and was later to fly out to Turkey for the last leg of a regional tour that has also taken him to Iraq, Afghanistan, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

Arriving in the Holy Land during the Easter weekend, Cheney vowed Washington's "unshakeable" defence of Israel's security, assured the Palestinians of US "goodwill" and said that both sides would have to make "painful concessions" if they were to strike a deal to end their decades-old conflict.

The vice president also discussed what he called "darkening shadows" in Israel's arch-foe Iran, Syria and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the Islamist Hamas movement.

In his first trip to the occupied West Bank as vice president, Cheney warned the Palestinians on Sunday that continuing attacks on Israel were killing hopes for their "long overdue" state.

"A difficult but immutable truth must continue to be told: Terror and rockets do not merely kill innocent civilians, they also kill the legitimate hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people," Cheney said after talks with moderate president Mahmoud Abbas.

But Cheney and his Western-backed host did not address news out of Yemen that Abbas's Fatah faction and its bitter rival Hamas had agreed to open direct talks under Yemeni auspices.

Hamas, a group pledged to Israel's destruction and considered a terror outfit by the US and the Jewish state, routed the pro-Abbas force in June 2007 in Gaza, splitting the Palestinians into two separate entities.

At a joint press conference with Cheney, Abbas once again condemned the rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza, but said that Israel would have to halt military raids and expanding settlements to strike a peace deal.

"Security and peace will not be realized with the continuation of the settlement activities, the establishment of roadblocks around cities and villages, the military escalations in the Gaza Strip and the continuing military operations in the cities and towns of the West Bank," Abbas said.

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are one of the main snags that have hampered peace talks since they were re-launched under US stewardship at an international conference in November 2007.

US President George W Bush hopes for an agreement by year's end, ahead of leaving office in January 2009.

On the Iran issue, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told Cheney that while economic sanctions were for the moment the best way to deal with Tehran, "no option should be ruled out."

"Iran's weapons programme threatens not only the stability of the region, but of the whole world," Barak said.

Washington and Israel, widely considered the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power, accuse Iran of pursuing the development of a nuclear bomb under the guise of its civilian nuclear programme - a charge Tehran denies.

The vice president's visit was part of a US diplomatic flurry before Bush returns to Israel in May for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish state.

In Turkey, Cheney was to meet with President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other senior officials.