Bush assures Abbas on statehood

By Matt Spetalnick and Wafa Amr

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush assured Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday that Palestinian statehood remained a high priority in his final 10 months in office despite faltering peace talks.

As Bush met with Abbas at the White House to try to shore up the negotiations, the Islamist militant group Hamas formally proposed to Egyptian mediators in Cairo a six-month truce between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with an option to extend it to include the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

"The movement agrees to a truce in the Gaza Strip ... fixed at six months, during which period Egypt will work to extend the truce to the West Bank," former Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar, said reading from a statement.

"The truce must be mutual and simultaneous and the blockade must be lifted and the crossing points opened, including the Rafah crossing point (between Gaza and Egypt)," Zahar, who is also a top Hamas leader, added.

Israel's U.N. ambassador said a truce would give Hamas a chance to regroup. "We do not intend to give them that time and we do not believe any truce offer that comes from Hamas is indeed trustworthy," Dan Gillerman said in New York.

Violence that has killed scores of people, mainly Palestinians, in recent months has fuelled deepening skepticism over the chances of achieving peace before Bush leaves power.

At the Washington talks, Abbas voiced confidence in Bush's commitment to an agreement that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state but acknowledged it would not be easy.

"I cannot say the road to peace is paved with flowers. It is paved with obstacles," Abbas said, sitting next to Bush in the Oval Office.

STALLED TALKS

The talks with Abbas were a prelude to Bush's trip to Israel in mid-May to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its founding.

Bush also plans to meet Abbas again at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh during the Middle East trip, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

"I assured the president that a Palestinian state's a high priority for me and my administration, a viable state, a state that doesn't look like Swiss cheese," Bush told reporters.

"I'm confident we can achieve the definition of a state. I'm also confident it's going to require hard work. To that end, I'm going back to the Middle East."

Negotiations between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have yielded little progress since Bush hosted a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November where the two leaders pledged to try to reach a peace deal by the end of 2008.

The U.S. administration now appears to be picking up the pace of Middle East diplomacy again after Bush failed to achieve a breakthrough on his last visit to the region in January.