Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon told US President George W. Bush in talks earlier this week that he opposed the creation of a Palestinian state because it would destabilise the Jewish state, a senior Israeli official said today.
But in an interview published today, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said US President George W. Bush favours the creation of a "temporary" Palestinian state ahead of a fully-fledged state.
"The president did not give up his objective but he know that to reach his goal a temporary Palestinian state as an interim phase and maybe other measures would be necessary," Mr Powell told the Arabic-language Saudi daily Al-Hayat.
Such a formula, according to Mr Powell, would "allow the Palestinians to achieve their hopes and dreams, and secure the confidence of the international community".
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Mr Bush "did not abandon his objective to set up a Palestinian state, called Palestine," that would live side by side with Israel in security, Mr Powell stressed.
He declined to give a timetable for the move from a temporary state to a full-fledged Palestinian state.
Yesterday, Mr Powell said in Washington that Mr Bush would announce steps to advance Middle East peace efforts "in the very near future" after talks later this week with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.
Mr Sharon was in London today for a meeting with British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair, a day after a suicide bomber killed a teenage girl in the Israeli coastal town of Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv.
The 15-year-old girl was killed and eight people wounded when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up outside a busy sandwich shop, witnesses said.
AFP