Bush and Blair push peace

WASHINGTON -- President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged Friday to use the transition to a new Palestinian leadership to push for Mideast peace but bluntly warned the Palestinians to build their state on reforms favored by the Western allies.

Appearing with Blair at the White House just hours after Yasser Arafat was buried, Bush said the death offers a "great chance to establish a Palestinian state" and a broader Middle East peace. Yet while promising to mobilize international support on the Palestinians' behalf, Bush made clear that the burden was on the new leadership to undertake political and economic reforms and overhaul its security services.

A Palestinian state and a secure Israel can be reached "only by one path: the path of democracy, reform and the rule of law," Bush said. He vowed that "we'll hold their feet to the fire to make sure that democracy prevails."

The president, whose budget and military are stretched thin, also used the occasion for a broad appeal to European governments to work with Washington on an agenda that includes the Iraq war, the Iranian nuclear issue, Afghanistan and terrorism.

Though many Europeans are increasingly alienated from the United States, Bush promised that "in my second term, I will work to deepen our trans-Atlantic ties to the nations of Europe." In another fence- mending gesture, he announced that he would take a trip to Europe within weeks of his January inauguration.

The meeting, Bush's first with a head of state since his re- election, was politically important for Blair, whose popularity has remained depressed at home because of his support for the unpopular Iraq war.

Bush's commitment to a renewed Mideast peace effort was a goal of the trip, analysts said, and it may help Blair at home as he prepares for an election in the middle of next year.

Yet Bush appeared more cautious than Blair about the Mideast peace effort and more determined to make sure that the Palestinians took their steps before the international community is fully committed. And Bush was noncommittal on proposals favored by Blair to convene an international conference on the peace effort and to appoint a special U.S. envoy to move the process along.

"I'm all for conferences as long as conferences produce something," Bush said.

Administration officials made it clear that until more progress was made toward its goals for Palestinian reform, Bush was not interested in the two proposals.

For right now, "we don't need to think about a conference and an envoy, " one official said. "We need to get this work done. We know what the work is. We have made a start on this work in the past year or two, but we can do a lot more now on building the institutions of a Palestinian state."

Asked whether he wanted to see a Palestinian state by the end of his term, Bush said, "I hate to put artificial time frames on things." But he added, "I think it is fair to say that I believe we've got a great chance to establish a Palestinian state, and I intend to use the next four years to, to spend the capital of the United States on, on such a state."

Bush and Blair also offered their condolences to the Palestinian people but said nothing specifically about the cause of their grief, Arafat. Bush, who had refused to meet with Arafat, said only: "Our sympathies are with the Palestinian people as they begin a period of mourning, yet the months ahead offer a new opportunity to make progress toward a lasting peace."

The two countries issued a statement outlining steps needed to achieve a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace based on a vision of two independent, democratic states. They included support for Palestinian elections, creation of Palestinian economic, political and security infrastructure, and Israeli disengagement from the Gaza strip.

"If the Palestinians choose not to go down that path . . . then the president has made it clear that's not a path to statehood," one senior U.S. official said after the news conference.

The administration wants the Palestinian Authority to install democratic processes to select leaders who now are chosen through cronyism and to reorganize the security services to crack down on terrorism.

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