During talks with visiting Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, US President George W. Bush urged Israel and the Palestinians on Thursday to live up to their obligations under the Middle East peace "road map."

"Israel must continue to take steps toward a peaceful future and not take steps that contradicts road map obligations" that call for the creation of an independent Palestinian state on lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, Bush said at a joint press conference with Abbas.

Stressing that Israel must "remove unauthorized outposts and stop settlement expansions," Bush also said that the Palestinians must end violence against Israelis.

Abbas arrived in Washington on Tuesday night for his first visit to the White House since he won the January presidential election. The trip was also the first by a Palestinian leader since 2000 as US and Israel had shunned late leader Yasser Arafat in peace talks, accusing him of fomenting violence.

A PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD

Prior to the two leaders' meeting, Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Wednesday Abbas will seek the US support for the establishment of an independent and viable state in his visit to Washington.

Erekat told the Voice of Palestine that Abbas will ask Bush for a clear position regarding the implementation of the roadmap peace plan which envisages an independent and viable Palestinian state alongside Israel.

On the planned Palestinian state, Abbas told reporters that " when we talk about two states, we are talking about a Palestinian state within the boundaries of 1967. That means those boundaries in our view should go back to the Palestinian people."

Bush expressed support for the Palestinian goal of a democratic state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with Arab East Jerusalem as its capital.

Addressing the press conference, Bush also announced that the United States will pay 50 million dollars in housing aid for Palestinians in Gaza once the Israel withdrawal set for this summer is complete.

Bush also said he had asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to travel to Jerusalem and Ramallah before the Israeli withdrawal.

SETTLEMENT AND THE SECURITY WALL

Abbas also voiced "deep concern" over the Israeli construction of the separation wall in the West Bank and the expansion of settlements, which he said "will destroy Bush's vision."

"We expressed our deep concern over the continuation of Israeli settlement activities and construction of the (security) Wall on our land, particularly in the area of Jerusalem," Abbas said at the press conference.

Abbas reiterated that "there is no justification for the wall and it is illegitimate and well as settlements -- it is illegitimate and we should not allow."

Bush insisted that Israel must address Palestinian concerns about Jewish settlements in West Bank and the path of a barrier Israel is building in the name of security but regarded by the Palestinians as a land grab.

The wall, he said, "must be a security rather than political barrier and its route should take into account, consistent with security needs, its impact on Palestinians not engaged in terrorist activities."

Bush also repeated his demand that Israel stop West Bank settlement expansion. And he said "any changes to the 1949 armistice lines must be mutually agreed to," referring to Israel's borders before the 1967 Middle-East war.

Palestinian officials were delighted with Bush's remarks.

"I think we have achieved what we wanted to achieve in this visit. We take President Bush's public declarations as commitments. We do not ask for more," Abbas said afterward.

Israel, boosted by Bush's assurance last year that it would not be expected to give up all occupied West Bank land under any future peace deal, has made clear it intends to continue building inside major settlement blocs, saying the barrier it is building in the West Bank keeps suicide bombers from entering the Jewish state.

THE PULLOUT

Under Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan, all settlers and forces protecting them will be withdrawn from the 21 settlements in Gaza and four smaller ones in northern West Bank.

Abbas said that in coming months that the world's attention would focus on Israel's Gaza withdrawal but that some Palestinians fear that it is only a way to divert people's attention away from Israel's settlement expansion of the West Bank and some fear the Gaza Strip will become a large prison.

Despite that, Palestinians support any Israeli withdrawal from occupied land and say they are open to coordinating the step with Israel.

On Thursday, Israel Radio reported that Most Jewish settlers to be evacuated from the Gaza Strip have signed pullout document.

More than 1,000 families from the Gush Katif bloc of settlements in Gaza have signed a document expressing their willingness to move out of Gaza if they can do so as an entire community and the homes they move to are permanent rather than temporary, claiming that they do not want to be forced to " evacuate twice," said the radio.

The document states that Gush Katif residents "still oppose the evacuation. But if the disengagement takes place, it is preferable that all residents of the Gush move together as a community."

On the same day, Israeli President Moshe Katsav visited a group of anti-pullout students on hunger strike and managed to dissuade them from using such an extremist way to express opposition to the Gaza pullout plan.

Some 40 university students, who have been hunger striking for 12 days, ended their strike at the request of Katsav, but insisted they would continue the protest by other means.

The plan is scheduled to start mid-August and designed to be completed in three weeks.

Source: Xinhua