More than 50 former US diplomats say President George W Bush's Middle East policy is costing the United States credibility, prestige and friends, in an open letter to be made public yesterday.

The letter, which was obtained by Reuters, expresses the signatories' support for 52 retired British diplomats who also sent a letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair last week.

"We former diplomats applaud our 52 British colleagues who recently sent a letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair criticising his Middle East policy and calling on Britain to exert more influence over the United States," the US letter begins.

Harshly criticising Bush for his support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the letter said: "Your unabashed support of Sharon's extra-judicial assassinations, Israel's Berlin-Wall-like barrier, its harsh military measures in occupied territories and now your endorsement of Sharon's unilateral plans

are costing ourcountry its credibility, prestige and friends."

Sharon meanwhile took his first steps yesterday toward amending the controversial pullout plan that his Likud party rejected, holding consultations with cabinet ministers on a new blueprint.

He met Justice Minister Yosef Lapid, a senior coalition partner whose Shinui party holds 15 seats in the 120-member parliament. Lapid had threatened to take the party out of the government if the plan was dropped.

However, the Bush-bashing letter, according to Andrew Killgore, who served as US ambassador to Qatar from 1977 to 1980 and was coordinating the effort, was signed by several former ambassadors, including James Akins, who was US ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1973 to 1976; Robert Keeley who was assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 1978 to 1980 and later ambassador to Zimbabwe and Greece; and John Gunther Dean, ambassador to India from 1985 to 1988.