Bush sides with Sharon over conditions for peace talks

The deadlock between Israel and the Arab states over how to rekindle peace negotiations was underlined yesterday when White House talks between President George Bush and Ariel Sharon left prospects for a Middle East conference cloudier than ever.

"The conditions aren't even there yet," Mr Bush said of the conference, first publicly aired by Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, on his return from the region this spring. The idea had been to hold the meeting, probably at foreign minister level, in the early summer.

But Mr Bush's assessment was bleak: "No one has confidence in the emerging Palestinian government. So first things first: Which institutions are necessary to give the Palestinian people hope and to give the Israelis the confidence that the emerging government will be someone they can deal with?"

In short, Mr Bush, who is due to make a statement on Middle East policy this week, sides fully with Mr Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, in his insistence that before any meaningful negotiation can begin, Palestinian violence against Israel must cease. For the failure to achieve this, both men hold Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, responsible.

The contrast could not be clearer with the moderate Arab states such as Egypt who would participate in any conference. Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian President, held talks with Mr Bush at the weekend and, if the two men's public pronouncements are any guide, came away with next to nothing. Egypt had been hoping to win agreement on a timetable of steps towards Palestinian statehood, perhaps next year or the year after. But the US President declared it was too early to commit to dates. First, he said, he had to decide "what was feasible".

Mr Bush seems scarcely more impressed than Mr Sharon by the restructuring of the Palestinian Authority at the weekend, including the appointment of new interior and finance ministers. The timing of the move appeared to be chosen to coincide with the Israeli Prime Minister's arrival in the US, and to meet American demands for an overhaul of the Palestinian administration, especially its security services.

For both Israel and its main ally, however, the changes do not address the main problem: Mr Arafat himself. Sitting alongside Mr Bush in the Oval Office, Mr Sharon said that "at the present time we don't see yet a partner" for any negotiations.

The comment merely underscores Mr Sharon's refusal to deal directly with Mr Arafat, whom he regards as at best unable to halt the suicide attacks against Israeli targets, at worst an accomplice in them. Mr Bush, equally damning, accused the Palestinian leader of failing to give his people "hope and confidence".

In a signal that Israel will not yield to pressure to ease its crackdown against Palestinian violence, Mr Sharon chose the moment of his arrival to unleash a new offensive against Mr Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah, designed, according to the Israeli army, to seal off the compound and prevent fugitives taking refuge.

As usual, Israel has received a green light from Washington. The Jewish state, said Ari Fleischer, Mr Bush's spokesman, had a right to defend itself. Washington would monitor the situation, he said, "but our understanding is the operation will be limited".

Mr Sharon's visit is his sixth to the US since he took office last year. At the White House and in meetings with congressional leaders, he is stressing that even if talks restart, Israel will not accept a return to its 1967 frontiers. It also believes that the way forward lies not in a push for a final settlement, but through a "long-term interim agreement" that would leave the most divisive issues for later. Any peace conference had to be based on the principle that "eradicating terrorism will set the stage for peace-making, not the reverse", Mr Sharon told The New York Times on Sunday.

In Ramallah, Israeli tanks encircled Mr Arafat's compound as troops arrested 27 suspected terrorists and imposed a curfew. The military did not attack the compound itself, as it did last Thursday, when it blew up three buildings in retaliation for the Palestinian suicide bombing a day earlier.

Mr Arafat was in the compound yesterday, Palestinian officials said.

One Palestinian man was killed and two were wounded in exchanges of fire around the city, Palestinian doctors said. The army said two soldiers were also wounded.