Bush locks Europeans out of Middle East process

George Bush travelled from Evian to the Middle East yesterday, determined to deny the Europeans a role in monitoring progress along the international road-map to a Palestinian state.

Today he meets Arab leaders in Egypt before hosting a formal Middle East summit in Aqaba, Jordan, tomorrow between Israelis and Palestinians. European diplomats have been excluded. An Israeli official told The Independent yesterday: "There will be no Europeans involved in the monitoring process. This has been a clear understanding between Israel and the United States."

The US monopoly chips away at Tony Blair's claim before the invasion of Iraq that Britain was a major player in the search for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. His friend George Bush, having committed his authority to the peace plan, wants the Americans in the driving seat. The Israelis insist it is in nobody's interest to have Europeans "sticking a spoke in the wheels".

The US intends to play a hands-on role, pushing the Israelis and Palestinians forward on the issues of security and settlements. Mr Bush is expected to appoint Robert Blackwill, outgoing US ambassador to India, to head a 12-man resident monitoring team. Mr Blackwill is a former head of the Middle East project at Harvard.

Distrust of the Europeans was fuelled first by the opposition of most European states to the war in Iraq, and more recently by the steady flow of foreign ministers to Yasser Arafat's bunker in Ramallah. The Americans and the Israelis had urged them to boycott the Palestinian president.

The Europeans had hoped to be involved in monitoring the road-map, which they drafted as part of the "Quartet" of the US, Russia and the United Nations. The text reads: "The Quartet will meet regularly at senior level to evaluate the parties' performance in implementation of the plan."

A British security agent, Alistair Crook, has been quietly mediating between Palestinians and Israelis for more than a year on behalf of the European Union. He is still in Jerusalem but his mission is steadily eroding.

European diplomats reacted philosophically to the snub. One said there was "frustrated resignation at being frozen out". Some Europeans hope they may yet be dealt in to monitor the less sensitive humanitarian aspects of the road-map.

Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, and his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, are putting a positive face on the summit. Israel has already started to ease travel restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza, and allow Palestinian labourers to go to jobs in Israel. Israel was preparing yesterday to release a batch of 100 Palestinian prisoners. An official said that if all went well in Aqaba, they hoped to announce the release of "several hundred" more by the end of the week.

Mr Sharon's main demand, the official said, would be concrete steps by Mr Abbas to fight terrorism. "A ceasefire will not be enough," he added. "Without this key element you can't get the road-map going."

The Palestinian Prime Minister, who acknowledged during talks with Mr Sharon last Thursday that he would have to do more, is expected to announce a ceasefire after the summit. The Islamic militants Hamas, the main stumbling block, indicated yesterday that it would comply with a truce.

Mr Sharon will reiterate his commitment to the road-map - with his government's 14 reservations - but his statement will not repeat last week's acknowledgement the West Bank and Gaza Strip are "occupied" territories. He does not want to provoke his own right-wing constituency any further, and he does not want to give ammunition to Palestinian lawyers in any future reparations suits.

Nor will he embrace a Palestinian state in so many words, just as Mr Abbas will not meet Mr Sharon's demand to recognise Israel as a Jewish state. To do so would rescind the claim for a right of return for Palestinians made refugees in wars.

On settlements, Mr Sharon will restrict himself at this stage to promising to evacuate "illegal" outposts in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The fate of the 146 established settlements would be left to later stages of the negotiations. Like so much else.