Policy Void: US diplomats scramble to save the Middle East peace process

US diplomats are scrambling to prevent the Middle East peace process from unravelling after the devastating stroke suffered by Ariel Sharon, their most influential ally in the region. But officials admit little will be clear until after the scheduled March elections in Israel at the earliest.

Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, insisted that despite the near-certain departure of the Israeli Prime Minister from the political scene, the Israeli people still strongly desired a permanent settlement with the Palestinians, ensuring peace and security for both sides.

She also pressed the Palestinians not to use the power vacuum in Israel as another reason to postpone their own legislative elections scheduled for 25 January. In building a stable society, "elections have to be held when they are expected to be held," Ms Rice said.

The White House refused to comment on how Mr Sharon's condition might affect prospects for peace in the Middle East or on the transfer of power to Ehud Olmert, the Deputy Prime Minister. The focus, said Mr Bush's spokesman Scott McClellan, should remain on Mr Sharon's health. But there was no concealing the void that has been left.

In his near five years as Prime Minister - almost exactly coinciding with Mr Bush's White House tenure - he has had a huge influence on US Middle East policy, especially after the 11 September 2001 attacks.

After 11 September, Mr Sharon seemed to convince Mr Bush that terrorism against Israel was the same radical Islamic extremism that was the target of his own wider "war on terror".

Mr Bush pursued the most pro-Israeli policies of any recent president, at least until Mahmoud Abbas succeeded Yasser Arafat as PLO chairman in 2004. In 2002, amid a particularly harsh Israeli crackdown, he famously described Mr Sharon as "a man of peace".

As the gravity of the Israeli Prime Minister's condition became apparent on Wednesday evening, Mr Bush used a similar formulation, praising him as "a man of courage and peace".

The White House basically acquiesced in the building of the security "fence" separating Israeli and Palestinian territories. It also accepted the continuing growth of settlements under Mr Sharon, and his intention of incorporating some West Bank territory into Israel - even though this would leave the Palestinians with a piecemeal state, under any final settlement.

Most recently, by securing Washington's backing for his policy of a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Mr Sharon succeeded in supplanting the virtually moribund "road map" with his own policy.

In the event, the Gaza pullout did breathe fresh life into the "peace process". It also coincided with a more hands-on approach by Washington.

The departure of Mr Sharon "raises a big question mark over the future of Israel and therefore over the future of the peace process", Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel, said. Many doubt that the centrist Kadima party, founded by Mr Sharon after his breakaway from Likud and which had been leading in the polls for the March elections, can fare as well without him. Some fear it may disintegrate entirely.