U.S. President George W. Bush, who is to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Wednesday, is focusing on the peace process rather than the embattled Middle East leader's future, the White House said Tuesday.
"Our focus hasn't been on that, I know that there has been a lot of attention, especially in the Israeli press and some international press, about Israeli politics," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said of Olmert's political situation.
"But President Bush has to keep his focus on the big picture, and so he is not spending a lot of time worrying about that, he is focused on how do we get the Palestinian state defined before the end of the year," Perino told reporters.
Olmert, who arrived here Monday to attend the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual policy conference, is being forced by domestic political rivals to resign over graft allegations and faces U.S. criticism of his government's continued expansion of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories.
Source:Xinhua
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