President George W. Bush yesterday failed to endorse specific plans for further Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank, but called the ideas from Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, "bold" and suggested they could be "an important step towards the peace we both support".
After his first meeting with Mr Olmert as prime minister, Mr Bush said: "He is willing to think about ways to advance the process and think creatively. The most important aspect of peace is to have a vision of peace."
The meeting in Washington was designed to forge closer ties between the two men and to discuss developments in Iran. Israel has come under pressure from US officials to be cautious about any unilateral action that could compromise efforts to secure final status negotiations on the borders between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
US officials had also demanded that Israel hold talks with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority's Fatah president. Mr Olmert yesterday said he would "exhaust every opportunity" to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority and pledged to "extend my hand to Mahmoud Abbas" and meet him. Although a date has not yet been set, he said it would be "in the near future".
Mr Olmert added that he accepted the "sincerity of Mahmoud Abbas as the elected president of the Palestinian Authority" but offered the caveat that he "hoped he will have the power to meet the requirements necessary for negotiations", such as Israel's security concerns.
The Israeli premier campaigned in March's general election on a platform of further Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank as part of a plan to fix Israel's final borders, with or without the agreement of the Palestinians, by 2010. The strategy was based on negotiating with Washington rather than with the Palestinians.
Israel said it had no partner for talks on the Palestinian side, particularly after the emergence of a Hamas-led government.
Today Mr Olmert will speak to a joint meeting of both chambers of Congress. However, in a further sign of tensions between the White House and House Republicans, Mr Bush suffered a defeat yesterday when the House voted by 361 votes to 37 to impose more aggressive limits on US aid to the Palestinian Authority. The White House has argued the bill would restrict humanitarian efforts.
