ISRAEL:George W. Bush has begun his first presidential visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, declaring that Israel must remove all illegal outposts in the West Bank, but at the same time intimating that there would not be intense American pressure brought to bear in the Middle East peace process during his final year in office.
"Am I nudging them forward?" Mr Bush asked rhetorically at a joint press conference with Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert. "My trip was a pretty significant nudge." However he made it clear that "America cannot dictate the terms for what a [ Palestinian] state will look like."
Any American attempt to dictate a peace deal, he added, "would cause there to be a non-lasting agreement."
Even before Mr Bush left the US, there were few in the region who expected his visit would produce a dramatic peace breakthrough. The trip is an attempt to bolster renewed peace talks, following a US-hosted summit last November at which the sides pledged to reach a comprehensive settlement before the president's term ends in a year.
Mr Bush said the sides were ready to deal with the "core issues," such as the borders of a Palestinian state, the future of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
With Mr Bush in the last year of his term, having never been prepared to get overly-involved in the Middle East conflict, and with Mr Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas politically weak, an agreement within the space of a year seems wildly optimistic.
Mr Bush did say he expected Israel to dismantle the dozens of illegal outposts that have sprung up across the West Bank in recent years and which Israel committed itself four years ago to remove. They "have got to go. We've been talking about it for four years. They ought to go."
Even as he leader spoke, though, settlers were setting up two new outposts in the West Bank - a clear message to him and Mr Olmert that they have no plans to leave.
Mr Olmert, while declaring that Israel is "not going to build any new settlements or expropriate land", added that there were certain facts on the ground "which one cannot ignore."
Palestinian militants also reminded Mr Bush and Mr Olmert that they have their own agenda: some 20 rockets and mortar shells were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel yesterday, with several of them landing in the southern Israeli town of Sderot. Both leaders agreed that a peace agreement would not be possible if a Palestinian government was unable to halt the rocket attacks from Gaza.
Mr Bush, who meets Mr Abbas in Ramallah today, said his "first question" to the Palestinian leader would be, "what do you intend to do about them?" - a reference to the rockets. There is little, however, that Mr Abbas can do.
He has had no control over Gaza since Hamas vanquished his Fatah movement in several days of bloody fighting last June, during which the Islamic movement wrested full control of the coastal strip.
American attempts to curb Iran's influence in the region are at the centre of Mr Bush's visit, during which he will also tour several Arab states. He repeated his view yesterday that "Iran is a threat," but not repeat a previous statement that all options were on the table when it came to countering it. This was understood by Israeli observers as a signal that he plans to employ diplomatic, not military, means against Tehran.
Both Israel and the US have accused Iran of developing a nuclear weapons programme, although the US National Intelligence Estimate published last month assessed that Iran had halted its nuclear programme in 2003.
Asked about the report, Mr Bush said it should not lead to a lessening of pressure on Iran: "The international community must understand with clarity the threat Iran poses to world peace."