Olmert says Bush reassured Israel on security

By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush reassured Israel during his recent visit Palestinians would need to meet their security obligations before any peace deal was implemented, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday.

Facing the possible defection of a right-wing coalition partner over Israel's peace negotiations with the Palestinians, Olmert opened the weekly cabinet meeting by making clear there would be no headlong rush towards Palestinian statehood.

"The president ... reiterated the United States' complete commitment that no agreement between us and the Palestinians could be carried out on the ground before full implementation of the 'road map', on all its commitments towards Israel's security," Olmert said.

Olmert said the security obligations in the road map, a 2003 U.S.-backed plan that calls on Palestinians to rein in militants and on Israel to halt all settlement activity, applied not only to the West Bank but also to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

It is unclear how Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas can impose security control in the Gaza Strip with Hamas Islamists in charge. Hamas opposes his peace moves with Israel.

Israel also has not met its obligations under the road map, including a pledge to dismantle dozens of settlement outposts built without government authorization in the West Bank.

During his first presidential visit to Israel and the West Bank, which ended on Friday, Bush said those outposts "ought to go". At the cabinet session, Olmert called the outposts "a disgrace", said a participant who declined to be identified.

But the Israeli leader, while critical of the outposts' presence, has not said when he would move against them.

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He has been treading cautiously to avoid confrontation with Jewish settlers and Yisrael Beiteinu, a right-wing coalition partner that champions their cause and whose leaders have threatened to quit the government over the talks with Abbas.

A senior U.S. official said on Saturday Washington has begun the process of monitoring and judging implementation of the sides' obligations under the road map as part of a peace process revived at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November.

Bush, who spent three days in Israel and the West Bank before traveling to the Gulf on his week-long visit to the Middle East, predicted Israel and the Palestinians would sign a peace treaty before his term ends in January 2009.

Israel and the Palestinians are at odds over the form of agreement they want to reach.

Israeli officials have said they are seeking a deal that would outline a "framework" for a future Palestinian state with implementation delayed until the Palestinians can ensure Israel's security.

Abbas wants a final peace treaty to enable him to declare a Palestinian state by the end of 2008.

(Additional reporting by Wafa Amr in Ramallah, Editing by Giles Elgood)