THE MIDDLE EAST: Choosing language that must have been music to the ears of Israel's prime minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, who was sitting alongside him, President Bush indicated last night that it was too early to set a timetable for Palestinian statehood.
"The conditions aren't even there for a ministerial-level international peace conference," he said. "That's because no one has confidence in the emerging Palestinian government."
Speaking after his sixth meeting in barely a year with Mr Sharon, Mr Bush did not even take a firm position against the possible Israeli expulsion of the Palestinian Authority president, Mr Yasser Arafat.
"I don't think that Mr Arafat's the issue," he said. "I think the issue is the Palestinian people . . . I am disappointed that he has not led in such a way that the Palestinian people have hope and confidence."
Echoing the stance that Mr Sharon has been taking in private and public remarks, Mr Bush showed great scepticism about a reform process that Mr Arafat is currently overseeing, and indicated that a far more radical re-organisation of the PA was required, with a well-run security apparatus, transparency of government, a rule-of-law reinforced by a court system, and more.
Mr Sharon, content to let Mr Bush do most of the talking, said that, "at the present time, we don't see a partner (for peace)".
The prime minister's confidence in the current firm nature of Israeli-American ties was reflected in the fact that, just hours before the White House meeting, the Israeli army sent a large force into Ramallah, surrounding Mr Arafat's headquarters, imposing a curfew in many neighbourhoods, taking over a building used by journalists, and making a series of arrests of what it said were terror suspects.
Palestinian leaders fumed that the incursion - during which a Palestinian policeman was killed, and several Palestinians and Israeli soldiers were injured - had foiled a planned inaugural meeting of Mr Arafat's new, slimmed-down cabinet. "Is that the message from Washington?" asked the Palestinian Authority's Information Minister, Mr Yasser Abed-Rabbo, "that Israel should abort the reform campaign, and the new government, before it even starts it?"
But Israeli officials said the incursion was "designed to root out terrorism," and Mr Bush stressed Israel's "right to self-defence".
Apart from announcing the new appointments and reduced number of cabinet ministers, Mr Arafat moved further to try and win over Mr Bush by taking into custody Shekih Abdullah Shami, the leader of Islamic Jihad, which claimed responsibility for Wednesday's bombing.
Meanwhile, Israel freed a Hizbollah captive, Mr Mohammad al-Barzawi, held for 15 years, entrusting him to the Red Cross for his return to Lebanon.
The father of an Israeli soldier, missing and believed dead in Lebanon for 18 months, indicated that the release may be designed to pave the way for an exchange of prisoners and/or bodies.