Bush hits accelerator on Mideast peace drive

By ANDREW BUNCOMBE in Washington

President Bush - finally placing himself at the centre of efforts to find a Middle East settlement - will meet the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers in Jordan next week to push forward the so-called road map, the White House says.

Having decided to take the gamble of getting personally involved, Bush will hold the three-way summit with Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas at the Red Sea port of Aqaba to "focus on moving forward".

"We fully expect the meeting to take place," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday.

"The president very much looks forward to meeting with Prime Minister Abbas for the first time as well as meeting with Prime Minister Sharon again.

"Mr Abbas is committed to reforms and moving the process forward as well as cracking down on terrorists."

McClellan added: "We want to make sure the environment is ripe for productive talks."

The US president has long resisted taking a personal interest in efforts to secure a Middle East settlement and last year his spokesman even suggested that former President Bill Clinton's efforts had led to unfair expectations.

But the Palestinians have bowed to US pressure to select a prime minister to lead their negotiations - partly side-lining the Palestinian Authority's chairman, Yasser Arafat - and Washington believes there is an opportunity to make progress.

The White House also confirmed that on Tuesday Bush will meet the leaders of several Arab states at a separate meeting at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said the president "expects a solid expression of support" for the US-backed plan, which calls for the establishment of a separate Palestinian state by 2005.

The president also would look to the Arab leaders to "increasingly isolate those who support terror", he said.

There had been concerns that the much-anticipated meeting with Sharon and Abbas may have been scuppered after the Palestinians asked for a one-day postponement. Arafat demanded the postponement, telling the PLO's executive committee he wanted to review security proposals before Abbas met Sharon. Arafat has not been invited to the summit.

Yesterday Abbas urged the Israeli Government to drop its reservations to the road map. He also called for calm in the build-up to the meeting.

In an interview with Israel's Haaretz newspaper, he said: "This is a historic opportunity to return to a track of normalcy. We are saying to the Israelis, 'Follow the map and don't waste time over details'."

Palestinian officials said Abbas would ask Sharon for an explicit declaration accepting Palestinian statehood. An Israeli Government official said Israel would consider issuing such a declaration, but only as part of a package that would include a credible Palestinian crackdown on Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other militant groups.

The road map outlines reciprocal steps leading to an end to violence and creation of a Palestinian state.

The Palestinians embraced it immediately, but Israel followed suit much more reluctantly, only after Washington agreed to address its reservations. The outline officially remains unaltered.

Bush's trip to the Middle East - after the G8 summit in Evian, France - will also take him to Qatar, regional headquarters of the US Central Command, where he will meet troops recently involved in the war in Iraq. In Aqaba he also will meet King Abdullah, of Jordan.


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