Bush, Blair say Sharon plan is opportunity

President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair called on the Palestinians and their supporters yesterday to use Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's West Bank plan as an opportunity for creating a Palestinian state.

Meeting against a backdrop of renewed violence in Iraq nearly a year after major combat operations were declared over by Bush, the two strong war allies reaffirmed their vow to stand together in Iraq and stick to a June 30 deadline for handing over power to an interim government.

"We stand firm," said Blair. "We will do what it takes to win this struggle. We will not yield. We will not back down in the face of attacks, either on us or on defenseless civilians."

But he added, "It was never going to be easy, and it isn't now."

Sharon's proposal to withdraw Jewish settlements from Gaza while retaining some settlements on the West Bank has drawn outrage from the Palestinians who see the West Bank as their land. The Arab world is opposed to it and many in Europe are skeptical.

In a major US policy shift, Bush endorsed the plan on Wednesday. Blair told a sun-drenched Rose Garden news conference with Bush yesterday that "we welcome the Israeli proposal to disengage from Gaza and parts of the West Bank."

"This is a historic moment," Bush said. "And I think people need to view it as such and seize the moment and help a Palestinian state become a reality, a Palestinian state that can live in peace with its neighbours."

The Palestinians, like London and Washington, had long viewed the settlements as an obstacle to peace, backed by a series of UN Security Council resolutions calling on Israel to abandon them. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said he fears the plan could escalate violence.

Blair disagreed with those who feel the plan is a departure from the US -backed "road map" envisioning a Palestinian state by 2005.

He called on the international quartet sponsoring the "road map" - the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations - to discuss how it can support the Palestinian Authority economically and politically. A meeting is scheduled for April 28 in Berlin.

Blair said that if Israel follows through on its proposal, "the concept of a viable Palestinian state becomes a real possibility; not something that's put in a document and talked about or discussed in resolutions or speeches, but actually is a real, live possibility."