US President George W. Bush today issued a new call on Israel to end its incursions in Palestinian-ruled areas, after Israeli forces launched another security sweep on the West Bank, killing a militant leader.
"(The) Israelis understand my position. I've been very clear and there has been some progress, but it's now time to quit it altogether; it's time to end this," President Bush said, in his second such call on Israel in two days.
"We'll see what happens. I know they've heard us," President Bush told reporters at his ranch, a day after discussing the Middle East crisis with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.
Earlier today, US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon by telephone, his spokesman Mr Richard Boucher said.
The conversation centered on Israel's reluctance to let a United Nations fact-finding team enter the devastated Jenin refugee camp, and the wider Middle East situation, Mr Boucher said.
Israeli troops backed by armored vehicles and two helicopters pursued their nearly month-old West Bank offensive today, launching a pre-dawn incursion into the town of Qalqilya, the army said.
A local leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was killed in the attack, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.
President Bush first called on Israel to end its incursions, which Mr Sharon's government says are intended to eliminate suicide bombers, on April 4th, but later said he was satisfied with Israel's limited withdrawal.
The operation has besieged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah compound and trapped armed Palestinians in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.
The crisis will be atop the agenda at a meeting of the Middle East "quartet," which the State Department said today would meet in Washington on May 2nd.
The panel, made up of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, last met in Madrid on April 10th and gave Mr Powell a ringing endorsement as he headed to the Middle East on a critical peace mission that ended inconclusively a week later.
A senior State Department official has said that Mr Powell could return to the Middle East in early- to mid-May, ahead of his planned attendance at a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Iceland May 14th-15th.
AFP