The United States should give Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas the support he needs to advance the peace process when he visits the White House next week, a senior Palestinian official has said.
Mr Abbas, who was elected to lead the Palestinian Authority after the death of Yasser Arafat, will meet President Bush in Washington on May 26th during a three-day visit.
"We think this is a golden opportunity for American participation and to send back Mr Abbas with some . . . agenda to work with," Mr Hassan Abu Libdeh, minister of labour and social affairs in the Palestinian Authority, told a dinner of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think-tank.
"We are tired of promises and we are tired of press releases that are showing more of the same. What is needed is more commitment toward enabling Mahmoud Abbas to be able to do what he is doing," Mr Libdeh added.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he will not hold talks on Palestinian statehood until Mr Abbas cracks down on militants under a US-led peace "road map."
Mr Libdeh said with proper support from the Bush administration and the international "quartet," peace talks could be jump-started, with a solution possible even this year.
"I believe the Palestinian side is ready to take the steps needed for reaching the solution," Mr
Libdeh said. "It is the absence of a third party who has the will, resolve and determination to bring the two sides together," he added.
Israel, which has committed to pulling out of occupied territories, is pressuring Mr Abbas to rein in the militant Islamic group Hamas, which has sworn to Israel's destruction.
Mr Libdeh said Abbas was not "weak" as many had characterised him and on his visit to Washington he would "make sure that he is understood".
He said Abbas had to tread carefully to bring all Palestinian players into the fold.