ARABS-ISRAEL - April 4 - Bush Calls For Peace & Halt To Israeli Offensive.

US Pres. Bush says: "America recognises Israel's right to defend itself from terror. Yet to lay the foundations of future peace, I ask Israel to halt incursions into Palestinian-controlled areas and begin the withdrawal from those cities it has recently occupied". He also urges Israel to halt construction of settlements in the occupied territories and ease border closures to allow ordinary Palestinians to return to work. (The US move represents a clear US shift towards greater involvement and a tougher line on Israel, and comes after criticism from the US, Arab and European allies, including British PM Tony Blair - see Arab-European Relations. According to his spokesman, Blair was "appalled" by the violence and urged Bush to show more leadership in the Middle East. He said: "You have to have a third party to bring the sides together and get the political dialogue going. We need an external force. We want to help the US to play this role". Two European peace envoys - Spanish FM Josep Pique and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana - cut short their visits after Israel refused them permission to visit Arafat. They had to cancel a meeting with Sharon and headed home rather than face humiliation as Israeli tanks poured into more PA cities in defiance of the international community. Pique told reporters after meeting FM Peres and Defence Minister Ben-Elieser and international peace mediators that Sharon's decision to deny the EU access to Arafat was "a very deep error". The envoys, hastily dispatched by EU foreign ministers after emergency talks on April 3, met no Palestinian representatives because PA ministers said they would not see the Europeans if they were barred from meeting Arafat). Bush also announces he will send US State Secretary Powell to the region to try to negotiate a ceasefire and restart talks between Israel and the PA. The decision to send Powell was endorsed by the UN Security Council in a resolution calling for Israeli withdrawal without delay. Bush also indicated that the White House would no longer necessarily wait for a ceasefire to take effect before opening political talks, a position that reflects Palestinian demands. Bush also criticised Arafat, saying: "The chairman of the Palestinian Authority has not consistently opposed or confronted terrorists". He urged Arafat and Arab leaders to "join us in delivering a clear and unequivocal message to terrorists: Blowing yourself up does not help the Palestinian cause. To the contrary, suicide bombing missions could well blow up the best and only hope for a Palestinian state... When an 18-year-old Palestinian girl is induced to blow herself up and in the process kills a 17-year-old Israeli girl, the future itself is dying - the future of the Palestinian people, and the future of the Israeli people. We mourn the dead, and we mourn the damage done to the hope of peace". But hope for peace, if seriously damaged, is not gone, he says, adding: "This could be a hopeful moment in the Middle East. The outlines of a just settlement are clear - two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security. This can be a time for hope, but it calls for leadership, not for terror. We have no illusions about the difficulty of the issues that lie ahead". But he says the US is "committed to ending this conflict and beginning an era of peace". Responding to Bush's statement, senior PA negotiator Saeb Erekat said he welcomed the initiative "without condition" but warned that the Palestinians "should not be blamed for hating the Israeli aggression on our people, our towns and our refugee camps". He rejected the Bush comment that "President Arafat's confinement and siege is of his own doing". The Israeli occupation, Erekat said, was "the highest form of terror". But he added on CNN: "We need to finish this vicious cycle". He said he hoped for an immediate Powell-Arafat meeting so the parties could "move directly to political negotiations".