Time to follow the roadmap, US tells Israel

Powell arrives in Jerusalem to push through peace plan calling for independent Palestinian state within three years

Colin Powell arrived in Jerusalem yesterday on one of the most crucial and difficult missions in his tenure as US Secretary of State: to get Israel and the Palestinians to implement the internationally supported "roadmap" peace plan, which calls for an independent Palestinian state within three years.

At the top of his agenda will be persuading Ariel Sharon's Israeli government formally to accept the peace plan. While the Palestinians have accepted the roadmap, which President George Bush says has his personal backing, the Israelis are still holding out and asking for changes.

"I'm encouraged that we may have a fresh start," Mr Powell said before leaving for the Middle East; the last time he visited was at the height of the fighting in April last year. But he also said before he left the US that he did not want the roadmap to get bogged down in "another endless loop of discussions and negotiations". Yet the signs are that he will have a hard time avoiding it.

There has been no sign of progress since the long-delayed roadmap was finally released just over a week ago, and the violence has continued on both sides.

As well as talks with Mr Sharon in Jerusalem today, Mr Powell is scheduled to meet Mahmoud Abbas in Jericho later in the day. It will be Mr Abbas's first meeting with a senior US official since he became Palestinian Prime Minister, and one of his first major tests.

Mr Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, wants to persuade the US that a ceasefire by Palestinian militant groups would fulfil the roadmap, which calls for Palestinian efforts to stop suicide bombings and other militant attacks. That assumes he can persuade militant groups such as Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades to agree to a ceasefire.

But the Israelis are adamant that a ceasefire is not enough, saying the militants will just use it to regroup for future attacks. They want Mr Abbas to go after the militant groups and arrest their leaders. But he is thought to be reluctant to do so for fear that taking on the militants too directly could split Palestinian society and risk internecine conflict.

In his meeting with the Secretary of State, Mr Sharon is expected to tell Mr Powell he believes the roadmap puts insufficient onus on the Palestinians to disarm and jail militants – though the plan puts its heaviest emphasis on the need for the Palestinians to stop the violence.

Mr Powell is expected to push Mr Sharon to ease some of the harsh restrictions the Israeli army has put on Palestinians, in order to strengthen Mr Abbas and dispel Palestinian fears that they have been duped into appointing a new Prime Minister without getting anything in return.

Mr Powell was thought likely to ask for the tight military enclosure on the occupied territories to be eased, for military roadblocks to be removed and for some minor Jewish settler outposts in the occupied territories to be dismantled.

The Israelis were yesterday reported to be planning to pre-empt Mr Powell by presenting him with a proposed list of measures on his arrival, including allowing more Palestinians to cross into Israel to work and easing restrictions on Palestinian travel between cities within the West Bank.