US: President George Bush has praised Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas as "a man devoted to peace" and declared that an independent Palestinian state is now closer than ever.
Mr Bush said progress depended however on the Palestinian Authority confronting terrorism and on Israel avoiding actions that hamper peace-making and made the lives of Palestinians more difficult.
"The way forward must begin by confronting the threat that armed gangs pose to a genuinely democratic Palestine," Mr Bush said after an hour-long meeting with Mr Abbas in the White House. "In the short term the Palestinian Authority must . . . earn the confidence of its neighbours by rejecting and fighting terrorism."
It was Mr Abbas's second visit to the White House since he took office in January and Mr Bush took the opportunity to reaffirm Washington's commitment to facilitating a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The president said the road map for peace drawn up by the US, UN, the EU and Russia remained the best route to a negotiated settlement.
Mr Bush told Israel that it must fulfil its obligations under the road map and avoid any action that prejudiced the final status negotiations on Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem.
"This means Israel must remove unauthorised posts and stop settlement expansion. It also means the barrier now being built to protect Israelis from terrorist attacks must be a security barrier, rather than a political barrier.
"Israeli leaders must take into account the impact this security barrier has on Palestinians not engaged in terrorist activities."
Mr Abbas said it was now time to resume negotiations with Israel on the basis of the road map, adding that Washington's support was essential if such talks were to succeed.
"So many years passed by, more than four years we did not have any dialogue," he said. "We did not have any talks. And now we have confidence. We need to rebuild and build on that confidence and on the relationship."
Mr Bush held back from suggesting a timetable for talks between Israelis and Palestinians, that it was for the parties themselves to determine the pace of negotiations.
"Everybody wants a timetable, it seems like, on different issues. These are very complicated matters where years of conflict and years of mistrust are being resolved by some basic truths and one of the basic truths is free societies are peaceful societies.
"And so we can look forward to working with a partner in peace, a person who said, vote for me, I'm for peace, and a man who declares his understanding that the Palestinian people, the long-suffering Palestinian people, will be well served by a democracy," he said.