With the United States under intense pressure from its European and Arab allies to do more to revive peace efforts, Ms Rice will visit Israel and the Palestinian territories as well as Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack was quick to play down the ambitions for Rice's trip, saying the focus would be "consultations" rather than big decisions.
"This is a trip designed to lay the foundations, potentially, for moving the process forward. There aren't any guarantees in that regard," he said.
Crisis ‘neglected’
The decision to dispatch Rice to the region followed a new show of impatience with President George W. Bush's administration, which is seen to have neglected the Israeli-Palestinian crisis as he focused on toppling Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq and the broader "war on terrorism".
At the UN General Assembly last week in New York, Ms Rice and Mr Bush heard one world leader after another appeal for renewed action, saying the festering Israeli-Palestinian conflict lay at the root of global instability and terrorism.
Mr Bush for his part offered a minor initiative involving Rice working with Arab allies to strengthen Palestinian security services loyal to the moderate President Mahmoud Abbas -- a task she will follow up on this trip, McCormack said.
But the spokesman held out little hope for any significant progress in ending the deadlock that has gripped Israeli-Palestinian dealings since the radical Hamas movement took control of the Palestinian government in March.
Scant details were provided for Rice's agenda, though she is expected to meet with Mr Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a US ally in need of support following his government's perceived mishandling of the recent war with the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
Tentative talk plans
Mr Olmert yesterday told Israeli radio earlier that he plans to hold his first direct meeting with Mr Abbas since June, but there are no plans yet for Ms Rice to make that a three-way encounter.
Mr Abbas has been trying to form a unity government between his moderate Fatah Party and Hamas in hopes of ending Western sanctions and renewing negotiations with Israel on the creation of a Palestinian state.
Israel and the West have suspended essential financial support to the Hamas government, plunging the Palestinian territories into dire hardship, although the US claims they have also weakened public support for the Islamist movement.
The United States and its major power allies have said they would lift the aid restrictions only once a Palestinian government recognises Israel's right to exist, renounces violence and abides by past peace accords.
While Abbas has vowed to meet those conditions, Hamas, which Washington and the European Union consider a terrorist organisation, has rejected them.