Bush vows second-term push for Palestinian state

WASHINGTON - US President George W Bush has vowed to use the next four years to help establish a Palestinian state, and he and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said they would help craft a post-Arafat strategy for making it happen.

"I'd like to see it done in four years," said Bush, elected last week to a second four-year term. "I think it is possible."

Bush and Blair held White House talks and afterward said the death of Yasser Arafat offered an opportunity to advance the peace process, but they were cautious on specifics.

They said the pace of pushing ahead depended greatly on who the Palestinians elect to replace Arafat, who died on Thursday in Paris.

"What we will do is anything that is necessary to make this strategy work," said Blair. "The important thing is that, first of all, there's got to be an agreement as to what a viable Palestinian state means. And what we're really saying this morning is that that viable state has to be a democratic state."

Bush said the Palestinians "may decide to elect a real strong personality, but we'll hold their feet to the fire to make sure that democracy prevails, that there are free elections."

Bush and Blair said they would work with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to complete Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank. Bush gave no sign of applying additional pressure on Israel, saying it was up to both parties to come to an agreement.

Bush said he and Blair had a long conversation about Blair's proposal for an international conference on the Middle East early next year in Britain.

"I'm all for conferences, just so long as the conferences produce something," the US president said.

He said one way to develop a strategy is to get the Middle East "quartet" together - the United States, Russia, the European Union, the United Nations - "to bring nations together and say 'Here's what it takes to help the Palestinians develop a state that is truly free."'

Bush was also open to appointing a new US envoy to the Middle East. He is currently in consultations about his second-term national security team amid indications Secretary of State Colin Powell will stay on for a time.

Blair, who came to Washington seeking to re-energize the Middle East peace process, said he and Bush wanted to mobilize the international community to help the Palestinians realize democracy.

In what sounded like a list of goals for the strategy, Blair cited a need to revive the Palestinian economy, build up its security institutions to fight terror and its government to fight corruption, and reform the Palestinian political system and build democratic institutions.

The two spoke of getting European allies involved, and Bush, who angered some traditional allies with the Iraq war over suspected weapons of mass destruction that were never found, said he planned to visit Europe early next year to strengthen trans-Atlantic ties.

Bush appeared irritated when asked by a British reporter if he considered Blair a US "poodle" for supporting the Iraq war.

"Don't answer 'yes' to that question," Blair chuckled to Bush.

Bush said: "These are troubled times. It's a tough world. What this world needs is steady, rock-solid leaders who stand on principle, and that's what the prime minister means to me."

Blair dismissed any notion that he expected payback from Bush for having stood with him in Iraq.

"We're not fighting the war against terrorism because we are an ally of the United States. We are an ally of the United States because we believe in fighting this war against terrorism," he said.

- REUTERS