ARABS-US RELATIONS - May 23 - Bush Fails To Back Israeli Plan For Borders.

Pres Bush fails to endorse specific plans for further Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank, but calls the ideas from Ehud Olmert, the Israeli PM "bold", and suggests they can be "an important step towards the peace we both support". Speaking in Washington after his first meeting with Olmert as PM, Bush said: He is willing to think about ways to advance the process forward and think creatively. The most important aspect of peace is to have a vision of peace". The meeting was designed to forge closer ties between the two men and to discuss developments in Iran. Israel has come under pressure from US officials to be cautious about proceeding with any unilateral action that could compromise efforts to secure final status negotiations on the borders between Israel and the PA. US officials had also demanded that Israel hold talks with Mahmoud Abbas, the PA's Fatah president. Olmert said he would "exhaust every opportunity" to reach a peace agreement with the PA and pledged to "extend my hand to Mahmoud Abbas" and meet him. Although a date has not yet been set he said it would be "in the near future". He added that he accepted the "sincerity of Mahmoud Abbas as the elected president of the PA" but offered the caveat that he "hoped that he will have the power to meet the requirements necessary for negotiations", such as Israel's security concerns. He warned that Israel would "not wait indefinitely", before pursuing withdrawal from settlements. Olmert campained on a platform of further Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank as part of a plan to fix Israel's final borders, with or without the agreement of the Palestinians, by 2010. The strategy was based on negotiating with Washington rather than with the Palestinians. Israel said it had no partner for talks on the Palestinian side, particularly after the emergence of a Hamas-led government. On May 24 Olmert will speak to a joint meeting of both chambers of Congress. However, in a further sign of tensions between the White House and House Republicans, Bush suffered a defeat when the House voted by 361 votes to 37 to pose more aggressive limits on US aid to the PA. The White House has argued the bill would restrict humanitarian efforts. Bush on May 23 did not respond directly to the vote but said: Our beef is not with the Palestinian people but with a group in the government that does not recognise Israel".