President Bush will travel to Jordan next week for a landmark summit with the Israeli and Palestinian Prime Ministers designed to "move forward" the Middle East peace process, the White House announced yesterday. Conor O'Clery reports from New York.
In his first trip to the region since becoming US President, Mr Bush will also go to Egypt to ask a summit of Arab leaders to back the "road map" aimed at achieving a viable Palestinian state and a secure Israel.
The meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas will put Mr Bush personally at the centre of the Middle East peace process.
They signify a White House commitment to make good on Mr Bush's pre-war promise to his closest ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, to promote the road map, and a recognition that without a serious attempt to create a Palestinian state the US will have difficulty damping down anti-American hostility in the Arab world.
Mr Bush will leave Washington tomorrow on the first leg of a world tour which will take him first to Poland and Russia, and then to the G8 meeting of the top industrialised nations in Evian-les-Bains, France.
At the G8 gathering, Mr Bush will hold separate meetings with French President Jacques Chirac - the first since France angered Washington by opposing the war in Iraq - and with Chinese leader Hu Jintao.
Mr Bush will cut short his attendance at the G8 summit from two to one overnights to travel to Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt. There he will meet President Mubarak of Egypt and later leaders from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Bahrain, as well as Mr Abbas, White House national security adviser Ms Condoleezza Rice told reporters last night.
From Egypt, Mr Bush will go to the Red Sea port of Aqaba, Jordan, on June 4th, for talks with King Abdallah of Jordan and for meetings, "conditions permitting", with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, first separately, then all three together.
The two summits exclude PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, whom Mr Bush refuses to meet, but who is reportedly playing a leading role in drawing up Palestinian strategy with Mr Abbas.
Mr Bush will look to the Arab leaders to "increasingly isolate those who support terror" and to help the Palestinians "restore their security" arrangements, US Secretary of State Collin Powell told reporters in Washington.
Mr Bush also "expects a solid expression of support" from Arab leaders for the road map, which is backed by the US, Russia and the United Nations, Mr Powell said.
The three-way summit among Bush, Sharon and Abbas "would give some hope and inspiration to people in the region" that the US was committed to moving the peace process forward, he said.
Israeli leaders have called on Mr Abbas to crack down on militant groups but the Palestinian police force and security infrastructure has been destroyed in Israeli raids.
The reform of the Palestinian security services to make them "unified and accountable" was one of the most important items on the agenda for both meetings, Ms Rice said.
"The President believes it is a new opportunity for peace at the end of the war in Iraq, particularly with the change in the leadership of the Palestinians," she stated. Mr Bush would be seeking a commitment from the Palestinians "to fighting terror and the ending of incitement".
By placing himself at the centre of a fraught process that has defeated previous presidents, Mr Bush is taking a considerable political gamble.
He faces opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state from within the administration and from the religious right, which has aligned itself with the Jewish settler movement.
Mr Sharon and Mr Abbas are scheduled to meet today for a second time in two weeks. The Palestinian Prime Minister is expected to ask for an explicit declaration accepting the Palestinians' right to statehood. An Israeli government official said this could come as part of a package to be announced at the meeting with Mr Bush.