& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Bush voices confidence about Palestinian state

US president sees signed ME peace treaty before leauing office

AFP, Ramallah
US President George W Bush said yesterday he believed a Middle East peace treaty would be signed by the time he leaves office in a year, despite scepticism among Israelis and Palestinians.
Bush, making his first visit to the occupied Palestinian territories, also voiced confidence about the emergence of an independent Palestinian state but said it had to be continuous.
"Swiss cheese isn't going to work when it comes to the territory of a state," he said at a press conference alongside Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank political capital Ramallah.
"In order for there to be lasting peace... Abbas and Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert have to come together and make tough choices and I'm convinced they will," he said.
"I believe it's going to happen, that
there's going to be a signed peace treaty by die time I leave office."
Bush's talks in Ramallah followed meetings with Israeli lenders on Wednesday at the start of a Middle East trip aimed at advancing peace negotiations revived amid great fanfare six weeks ago but which have stumbled since.
The leader of the world's biggest superpower, on only the second trip to the West Bank by a sitting US president, had been forced to go by road to Ramallah after thick fog grounded his Marine One helicopter.
The city was under virtual curfew, with about 4,000 law enforcement officers fanned out across Ramallah and all cars banned.
Bush nevertheless faces an difficult task to win over the hearts and minds of Palestinians, who arc deeply sceptical about his ability to be an even-handed peace broker as Israel's closest ally.
"I don't believe he will do anything for the Palestinians," said
Mohammad Khaldi, a 64-year-old Ramallah resident. "If he wanted to really do something, he had six years for that and he didn't do a single thing."
The latest negotiations have become bogged down because ot discord over Jewish settlement expansion and Israeli-Palestinian violence.
The peace efforts have been complicated by the split in Palestinian society since Hamas's bloody takeover of the impoverished Gaza Strip in June which has left Abbas in charge only in the West Bank.
Bush said Hamas had caused nothing but "misery."
And after his talks with Olmert on Wednesday, Bush warned that violence against Israel from Gaza had to stop before a peace deal could be sealed.
"You can't expect the Israelis, and I certainly don't, to accept a state at their border which vhll
become a launching pad for terrorist activity," he said.
Olmert echoed the sentiment: “Gaza must be part of the package and us long as there will be terror from Gaza it will be very, very hard to reach any peaceful understanding between us and the Palestinians."
Although Bush told Israel to dismantle wildcat settlement outposts in the West Bank, he did not call for a complete halt to set dement activity - as repeatedly demanded by the Palestinians.
Palestinian concerns about Intensifying Israeli assaults against militants - - which have killed about 100 people, mostly gunmen, since the peace talks were relaunched in late November — were also due to top Thursday's talks.
The Palestinian Authority argues that the operations undermine its ; efforts to reassert its authority in the i wake of the Hamas takeover of Gaza. • Israel argues they are needed to ; prevent attacks on its territory.