MIDDLE EAST: US President Mr Bush yesterday released the so-called "road map" to Middle East peace which envisions the end of the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
Mr Bush, who has refused to deal with Palestinian leader Mr Yassar Arafat, released the road map following the confirmation by the Palestinian Authority of Mr Mahmoud Abbas as Prime Minister with broad powers to negotiate.
UN envoy Mr Terje Larsen handed a copy of the plan to Mr Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
The US ambassador to Israel, Mr Dan Kurtzer, presented the document to the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, in Jerusalem.
The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, spoke to both leaders by telephone from Washington, and announced plans to visit the region almost immediately for talks in Syria and Lebanon, and to make a second trip some days later to discuss the plan with Mr Abbas and Mr Sharon.
Mr Abbas, who is acceptable to Washington because of his forthright condemnation of violence by Palestinian militants, will be invited to the White House to meet Mr Bush, White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer said yesterday.
The US is making it a priority to get the two sides talking to create the conditions for negotiations.
In a statement, Mr Bush called on "Israelis and Palestinians to work with us and with other members of the international community, and above all directly with each other, to immediately end the violence".
The road map "represents a starting point toward achieving the vision of two states - a secure state of Israel and a viable, peaceful, democratic Palestine", he said.
Mr Powell said yesterday he would apply pressure on both sides to carry out the road map schedule, and that progress toward peace "is going to require acceptance of obligations, performance, by both sides".
The publication of the road map, devised by the "quarter" of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, is the essential first step in negotiations leading to "an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel and its neighbours".
The plan calls on the Palestinian leadership to call for a cessation of all armed activity by Palestinian groups, confiscate illegal weapons, create democratic institutions, hold elections and unequivocally recognise Israel's right to exist.
Israel is called upon to end violence against Palestinians, stop deportations and attacks on civilians and the destruction of Palestinian homes, withdraw from Palestinian areas occupied from September 28th, 2000, freeze all settlement activity, immediately dismantle settlements erected since March 2001, allow movement of people, and unequivocally affirm its support for a peaceful Palestinian state.
The road map envisages two international conferences, one after Palestinian elections and another in early 2004 to endorse agreement on an independent Palestinian state and launch efforts to achieve a final settlement including the status of Jerusalem, borders, refugees and settlements.
Former US envoy to the Middle East, Mr George Mitchell, said last night that the plan offered hope for a settlement as the violence which has left 2,000 Palestinians and 700 Israelis dead showed neither side could obtain their objective by denying the other their objective.
Mr Mitchell said the new Palestinian Prime Minister had to confront violence but he must be given time to build up a security structure and the Israelis must offer a peaceful alternative so that Mr Abbas is not just seen as "an enforcer of security for Israelis".