American U-turn on Talks With Palestinians

The Bush administration yesterday attempted further damage control in the Middle East, ending a months-long boycott of the Palestinian leadership to offer surprise talks with the prime minister.

President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, will meet Ahmed Qureia, commonly known as Abu Ala, in Berlin on May 17. It will be the prime minister's first talks with the US leadership since he assumed office late last year.

In an additional concession to Arab opinion, Colin Powell, the secretary of state, is to travel to Jordan next weekend to meet with Palestinian and Arab leaders attending an economic conference.

The twin moves are meant to offset the outrage in the Arab world provoked by Mr Bush's promises to Ariel Sharon last month that validated continued Jewish presence in settlements in the West Bank and denied Palestinian right of return to homes in what is now Israel. Mr Bush has distanced himself from earlier assurances that Israel could keep some West Bank territory.

The parallel talks amount to a vindication for the state department, which had urged the White House to make concessions after it came out last month in favour of Mr Sharon's new, unilateral approach to the settlements question.

Mr Bush's support for Mr Sharon's plan - withdrawal from Gaza while remaining in control of large chunks of West Bank territory surrounding key Israeli settlements - infuriated the Arab world.

The White House had vetoed a more conciliatory stance earlier this week, but in the wake of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal it was deemed prudent to try to head off Arab indignation.

"We know that these [our foreign] policies need public acceptance, public support. It's harder to get that when the public is preoccupied by the terrible things that they saw happen at the prison," said the state department spokesman Richard Boucher.

The new diplomatic manoeuvring came amid continuing low-level violence on the ground. Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian during clashes in the West Bank. Israeli troops also traded fire with Hizbullah guerrillas along the Lebanese border in the most intense clashes for months. One Israeli soldier was killed and five were wounded.

Mr Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza received a setback when his party opposed it in a referendum last weekend, but the Israeli prime minister still wants to explore ways of pushing through the policy.

"We must find a way to implement the disengagement plan because of its importance for the future of Israel," he said yesterday.

Mr Qureia welcomed Mr Bush's bid to mend fences with Arabs. "We want the Americans to put pressure on Israel in order to implement the road map," he told Reuters.

His negotiations minister, Saeb Erekat, said the talks with Ms Rice would "restore the relationship between the Palestinian Authority and the United States".

"We hope the American side will introduce mechanisms of implementation of the road map and send observers on the ground to start implementing it.," he said.

guardian.co.uk/israel