Bush rejects Abbas' demand to jump to final-status talks with Israel: Sharon's aide

US President George W. Bush has rejected a demand made by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to skip the roadmap's intermediate phase to directly move to final-status talks, the Israeli Ha'aretz daily reported Friday.

An aide of Sharon made the remarks in response to Abbas' first meeting with Bush in Washington on Thursday since he was elected as chairman of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in January, said the report.

Phase two of the road map peace plan calls for establishing a Palestinian state with temporary borders, and this is supposed to precede the start of final-status negotiations.

During the meeting with Abbas, Bush demanded that Israel halt all settlements construction, specifically mentioning Jerusalem in this context, and the Palestinians must end violence against Israelis.

The unidentified aide of Sharon was quoted as saying that there was nothing new in Bush's statements about the settlements, adding Israel was satisfied with the fact that Bush did not give Abbas any written document similar to the letter to Sharon last April.

Both the Israelis and Palestinians had promised to reach peace through the road map, but failed to meet the plan's first step, which demands the Israelis stop expansion of West Bank settlement and the Palestinians disarm militant groups including the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

The Israelis have been blaming the PNA for failing to wipe out terrorism in the territories and took it as an excuse not to implement the peace plan.

While the Palestinians want to skip establishing a state with temporary borders, fearing such temporary borders will make it even harder to get back Jerusalem and land in the West Bank.

Source: Xinhua