The Palestinian Authority has urged Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to heed US president George W Bush's call to meet Israel's 'road map' obligation not to expand Jewish settlements.
"I hope that Prime Minister Sharon will adhere to President Bush's call to stop all settlement activities because I believe this is the key to everything," top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said after Mr Bush held talks with Mr Sharon in Texas.
Mr Bush told the Israeli prime minister he was concerned about West Bank settlement growth and urged him to stick to his obligations under the US-sponsored road map to a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.
Mr Erekat said the vision of a two-state solution would be jeopardised if Israel continued expanding settlements on occupied land and kept up construction of a barrier it is building in the West Bank.
Israel says the barrier, which cuts into occupied territory, stops Palestinian suicide bombers from entering the Jewish state. Palestinians consider it a land grab.
Concerned about the progress of negotiations toward peace in the Middle East, the US president told Mr Sharon both publicly and privately not to expand a key Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
"I told the prime minister not to undertake any activity that contravenes the road map or prejudices final status obligations," Mr Bush said after the two met today at the president's Texas ranch.
Mr Bush held the meeting to reaffirm support for Israel's Gaza pullout but also to raise concern about West Bank settlement growth.
Mr Sharon has promoted his plan to remove all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank by citing Mr Bush's assurance a year ago that Israel would not be expected to give up some West Bank settlement blocs in future peace deals.
But Mr Sharon, trying to blunt rightist resistance to his plan, went a step too far for Washington by pledging to pursue construction of 3,500 homes for Israelis in a narrow corridor between the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim andJerusalem.
It was thought an outbreak of violence in the Gaza Strip could provide the backdrop for Mr Sharon to try to focus the summit on his main demand that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas disarm and dissolve militant groups.
"They are pointing a gun to (Abbas's) head," a senior Israeli official said about Palestinian militant groups that fired dozens of mortar bombs at Jewish settlements in Gaza over the weekend. This followed the killing of three unarmed Palestinian youths by Israeli troops in disputed circumstances in southern Gaza.
The violence was the most serious in the area since Mr Abbas and Mr Sharon declared a ceasefire at a February 8th summit.
"The firing (of the mortars) was a flagrant violation of the understanding achieved at Sharm el-Sheikh and it will be a central issue to be raised in my talks with President Bush," an aide quoted Mr Sharon as saying on the flight to Texas.
Mr Sharon has promised to abide by the 'road-map' obligations on the settlements.