Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon will try in talks with US President George W. Bush to ease his concerns about a planned West Bank security fence that Palestinians condemn as a land grab.
On the eve of Mr Sharon's eighth prime ministerial visit to the White House, senior Israeli officials said he would weigh Mr Bush's comments on the issue seriously and noted the barrier's final course on land Palestinians want for a state has not been set.
"There is no wall between Sharon and Bush," one of the officials said about their relationship, signalling confidence any rough edges could be smoothed over.
Sharon enters the talks with a goodwill pledge to release 540 Palestinian prisoners, including 210 Islamic militants Israel had refused to free, in a bid to bolster Palestinian Prime Minister Mr Mahmoud Abbas and a US-backed peace "road map."
White House spokesman Mr Scott McClellan welcomed the Israeli decision to release prisoners, saying such steps "help facilitate progress toward peace." But Palestinians seek freedom for all 6,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
In another gesture before Mr Sharon's visit, troops removed checkpoints near the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Hebron, opening the road to more than 100 villages for the first time since the uprising began.
Mr Bush has expressed concern over the fence, which he called "a problem," after talks with Mr Abbas at the White House that appeared to put the moderate leader on equal footing in Washington with Mr Sharon.
Palestinians fear the fence, due to cut deep into West Bank territory, is intended to unilaterally set the borders of their envisaged state by ensuring large tracts of confiscated West Bank land are on the Israeli side of the barrier.