Abbas rejects U.S. mediation in peace talks

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TEL AVIV — President Bush's three-nation trip to the Middle East ended on a sour note in Egypt yesterday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas saying that Mr. Bush's remarks to the Israeli parliament last week "angered" Palestinians and that he no longer wants the United States to mediate peace talks with Israel.

Moreover, Mr. Bush's speech yesterday on democratic reform in the Middle East received a cool response from the 1,500 global policy-makers attending a World Economic Forum meeting at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheik.

His call for wider freedom of expression in the Middle East and a release of political prisoners got only a smattering of polite applause, according to the Associated Press.

News organizations reported that Mr. Abbas told Israeli left-wing lawmaker Yossi Beilin that he would resign if negotiators made no progress in peace talks by the end of the year. An Abbas spokesman denied the comment.

In a Saturday night meeting with Mr. Bush, Mr. Abbas and his aides complained that Mr. Bush's overwhelmingly pro-Israel address to the Israeli parliament on Thursday weakens Palestinian negotiators against opponents of a peace accord.

Mr. Abbas said Palestinians were "angered" by the speech, and he asked Mr. Bush to strike a more "balanced" tone.

"We do not want the Americans to negotiate on our behalf," Mr. Abbas said yesterday after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the AP reported. "All that we want from them is to stand by [our] legitimacy and have a minimum of neutrality."

Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said Palestinians told the president in a "candid" meeting that Mr. Bush "missed an opportunity" to speak to the Israeli public about the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Mr. Erekat said that Mr. Bush's speech was a "real disappointment" to Palestinians and that he fears extremists will use it "as ammunition."

Yesterday, Mr. Bush called on Middle Eastern countries to liberalize their economies and stop repressing their populations.

He attempted to defuse some of the criticism directed at him after Thursday's speech to the Knesset, where he effusively praised Israel on the Jewish state's 60th anniversary but did not mention the plight of the Palestinian people and made little mention of the peace talks.

Mr. Bush ended his speech yesterday by saying that his vision for a "free and independent" Middle East is "the same one I outlined in my address to the Israeli Knesset."

He referred to the peace process, but only in general terms.

"Palestinians must fight terror and continue to build the institutions of a free and peaceful society," he said. "Israel must make tough sacrifices for peace [and] ease the restrictions on Palestinians. Arab states, especially oil-rich nations, must seize this opportunity to invest aggressively in the Palestinian people and to move past their old resentments against Israel."

Mr. Bush said the Palestinian people "have suffered for decades" and "earned the right to a homeland of their own."

He made the remarks on investment just days before the opening of a Palestinian business conference in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Mr. Bush is sending a delegation headed by Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert M. Kimmit.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking to reporters on Air Force One as Mr. Bush flew back to Washington, said the president "didn't really want to dwell on the last 60 years."

"The president isn't pro-this or pro-[that]. ... The president is pro-democracy and pro-peace," she said.

• Jon Ward contributed to this report from Washington.