Bush warns Sharon against West Bank settlement growth

CRAWFORD, Texas -- President Bush told Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Monday he must not allow further West Bank settlement growth and said Israeli and Palestinian doubts about each other were hampering peace prospects.\nIn response, Sharon said Israel would abide by the internationally negotiated "road map" peace plan, which calls for a settlement freeze, but would keep some large Jewish population blocs in the West Bank under its control.\nAt a joint news conference on Bush's ranch, both leaders sounded pessimistic about near-term prospects for peace.\nSharon said Israel would not move forward on the road map until Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas did more to disarm militant groups and brought about "a full cessation of terror, hostilities and incitement."\n"We will continue with the negotiations only after Palestinians agree to stop the terror," Sharon said.\nBush cited "a lack of confidence in the region. I can understand that. There's been a lot of death. A lot of innocent people have lost their lives. And there's just not a lot of confidence on either side."\nBut if Israel's withdrawal from Gaza comes off successfully, then, "I think we'll have a different frame of mind" more conducive to pursuing peace, Bush said. "To me, that's where the attention of the world ought to be: on Gaza."\nIsrael is to quit all 21 Gaza settlements and four more in the West Bank this summer. The operation will remove about 9,000 Israelis from their homes.\nIsraeli officials have become increasingly worried about violence in the West Bank.\nBush praised Sharon's "courageous initiative to disengage from Gaza and part of the West Bank" and urged Palestinian leaders to accept the prime minister's offer to coordinate the withdrawal.\nAt the same time, Bush said he had not budged in his opposition to settlement expansion.\n"I've been very clear. Israel has an obligation under the road map. That's no expansion of settlements," Bush said.\nIn Ramallah on the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority urged Sharon to heed Bush's words.\n"I believe this is the key to everything," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "Failure to adhere to the president's call to stop all settlement activity literally means we will not be able to talk about the two-state solution, vision or no vision."\nThe United States has objected to an Israeli plan to add 3,650 homes to the West Bank's largest settlement, Maaleh Adumim. The plan would cut off Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank.\nIsrael insists it has the right to continue expanding this and several other major Jewish enclaves established on formerly Arab-controlled lands after the 1967 Mideast War.\nDespite his opposition to new settlement activity, Bush in a show of support for Sharon's leadership repeated a statement he first made last April that it is unrealistic to expect Israel to pull back to the borders that existed before the 1967 war.\nBush cited "new realities on the ground."\nBush had praise for the Palestinian leadership, but also made clear more must be done. "We want to continue to work with them on consolidating security forces," he said.\nAbbas will meet with Bush in Washington next month.\nStanding under bright sunshine near a large cactus, the ground near them covered with bluebonnet flowers, Bush and Sharon talked outside a new one-story building that Bush uses as an office on his 1,700-acre ranch. Afterward, Bush took Sharon on a tour of his ranch and they had lunch.\nSharon, who owns a farm in Israel, invited Bush to visit his spread. "It's something that I look forward to doing," Bush said.\nSharon, speaking later with reporters before boarding his plane to fly to Washington, said the settlements Israel chooses to hold on to "will be part of Israel."\n"I have never identified which settlement blocs we intend to keep because we don't know how things will develop," he added.\nHe denied a rift with Bush because of their differences over settlements. "In fact, I hope those outside could hear the peals of laughter coming out of the building," he said.\nWhite House spokesman Scott McClellan said that at their lunch, Bush and Sharon turned to other subjects, including European diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.\nThe "road map" peace plan envisions an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel but has been frozen since its launch in June 2003 amid violations by both sides.\nSharon wants Palestinian leaders to guarantee that Israelis will not come under fire during settlement evacuation.\nOn Saturday, Israeli troops shot and killed three teenagers in disputed circumstances in the Gaza Strip, shattering weeks of calm and raising tensions. In response, Palestinian militants fired at least 21 mortar rounds at Jewish settlements there, the army said.