Bush in Saudi to court ally on Mideast peace

By Tabassum Zakaria and Matt Spetalnick

RIYADH (Reuters) - President George W. Bush arrived on his first trip to Saudi Arabia on Monday, hoping to convince the Arab powerbroker to lend support to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and help contain Iran.

Nearing the final stages of his most extensive Middle East tour, Bush flew from Dubai to Riyadh for talks with King Abdullah, ruler of the Arab world's richest country with a history of close U.S. ties.

Abdullah embraced Bush at the foot of a stairway to the Air Force One presidential jet and they walked together down a red carpet flanked by a military honor guard as music played.

Bush is courting Gulf Arab allies to help shore up revived U.S.-backed peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinians and stay aligned with Washington against Iran's growing influence in the oil-rich region.

Saudi Arabia is considered a linchpin for any broader Israeli-Arab reconciliation as Bush presses Israelis and the Palestinians to secure a peace deal before he leaves office in January 2009. But the effort has drawn heavy skepticism.

Iran also loomed large in Bush's talks with Abdullah later on Monday. While Gulf Arabs share U.S. concerns about curbing their powerful Shi'ite neighbor, they want to avoid another war on their doorstep.

"All agreed it's a difficult problem that needs to be addressed, and at this point pursue in a diplomatic fashion," Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser, told reporters when asked how United Arab Emirates leaders had reacted to Bush's entreaties on Iran.

Analysts say there are growing signs that America's Arab allies prefer to engage Iran, as Saudi Arabia did with its invitation to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the haj. He was the first Iranian president to receive an official invitation to the annual Muslim pilgrimage.

SOUNDING WARNING ON IRAN

Bush has been sounding a warning about Iran as a threat in the region throughout this trip to the Middle East. In a speech in Abu Dhabi on Sunday he declared Iran a threat to world security and "the world's leading state sponsor of terror."

Bush has also been asking Arab allies to diplomatically and financially support Palestinian leaders involved in peace talks, and to "reach out" to Israel, their longtime foe.

Saudi Arabia attended a U.S.-sponsored summit in Annapolis, last year aimed at restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

But Saudi Arabia has no diplomatic ties with Israel and says "normalization" will only happen with a final peace deal that returns all Arab land occupied by Israel in the 1967 war.

The Bush administration was expected to notify Congress as early as Monday about part of an arms package it wants to provide to Saudi Arabia.

The administration last year proposed supplying Gulf Arab states with some $20 billion in new weapons, including Joint Direct Attack Munition bomb kits for the Saudis.