Report: Powell believes pullout unlikely before U.S. elections

United States Secretary of State Colin Powell does not expect Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for unilateral disengagement from the Palestinians to be launched before the U.S. presidential elections in November, Army Radio reported Wednesday.

Powell reportedly made the comments at the international conference on anti-Semitism in Berlin on Wednesday.

"I think that the prime minister has a very interesting proposal and I'm sure that the members of the Likud Party are studying it in considerable detail," Powell said when asked whether he would encourage Likud members to vote in favor of the plan in a party referendum set for Sunday. "I'll let each and every one of them make their individual judgement."

Also Wednesday, the U.S. administration moved to soothe Israeli fears in the wake of reports that Washington intended to send a letter of assurance to Jordan to "balance" the letter President George W. Bush sent to Sharon detailing his commitments regarding the disengagement.

Bush provided Sharon with the document during their White House meeting two weeks ago.

Senior White House officials spoke with Israeli Ambassador to Washington Daniel Ayalon on Wednesday, to clarify that Bush does not intend to renege on the commitments he granted to Sharon, despite Jordanian and Palestinian pressure.

"The president's commitments to Israel, detailed in the letter to the prime minister, are valid and binding as they are written and are clear and to everyone," said a statement released by the Israeli Embassy in Washington following the meeting between Ayalon and the White House officials.

Reports that the American administration is inclined to present King Abdullah with a "balancing message" to the letter of commitment that Bush presented to Sharon have reached Jerusalem over the past few days. The monarch is due to visit Washington on May 6.

Bush is considering giving written assurances to Abdullah that the issues of settlements and the Palestinian refugees will be decided in negotiations between the two sides, the Reuters news agency reported.

The Jordanians had requested a letter of this nature in talks with American officials, but when it met with opposition, they decided that Abdullah would postpone his visit to the American capital until after Sunday's Likud vote on Sharon's disengagement plan.

Similar letters have been requested from the Americans by Saudi Arabia and the Palestinians.

The U.S. has informed Israel it will have to make a "corrective" move toward its European allies and the Arabs, but that it will under no circumstances renege on its promises to Sharon.

In an interview with Army Radio on Wednesday, however, Israel Ambassador to Washington, Dan Ayalon, said that Bush has not gone back on any of his public assurances to Sharon at the White House earlier this month on the issue of borders and the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

The Americans are waiting for the Likud referendum so as not to make statements that will weaken Sharon's position vis a vis his opponents - those who are against withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank.

Jordan would like the Americans to soften their promises to Sharon on the issues of borders and refugees, which were supposed to be part of the final status agreement.

Bush in his letter told Sharon that it would not be "practical" to return to the 1949 cease-fire lines, and that the future border should take into account the existence of "Israeli population centers" - a euphemism for the settlement blocs.

Bush also wrote that the Palestinians would be able to settle in the future Palestinian state, rather than Israel. However, both remarks were qualified by the statement that any final agreement would have to be acceptable to both sides.

In an article in The Washington Post earlier this week, former U.S. ambassador Martin Indyck wrote that Palestinian supporters have requested that Bush balance his promise to recognize Israeli "population centers" in the West Bank with a declaration in favor of "territorial compensation" for the Palestinians.

The American administration is also gearing up for meetings with its Quartet partners - the UN, European Union and Russia - due to take place at the ministerial level next Tuesday in New York. The U.S. delayed the meeting until after the Likud referendum. Officials of the four parties will meet later this week in London.

The Americans would like to get the Europeans involved in steps aimed at assisting the plan, rehabilitating the Gaza Strip after the Israeli withdrawal, and transfering the settlers' properties to the Palestinians in an orderly fashion.

In order to appease the Europeans, the Americans are expected to announce at the meeting that they remain firmly behind an agreed final settlement, and that they are opposed to prejudging its results.

In anticipation of the upcoming quartet meeting, Dov Weisglass, director of the Prime Minister's Office, flew to Paris and Rome last week, while National Security Adviser Giora Eiland went to Moscow. They presented officials there with the background to, and details of, the disengagement plan.

Weisglass requested that the Europeans lend a hand to help make it succeed, that they assist the Palestinians with their economy and with the rehabilitation of Gaza, and that they act as "trustees" in the transfer of the assets of the settlements.

Jordan's king: Gaza pullout should be part of total withdrawalJordan's King Abdullah told visiting Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia Wednesday that Israel's planned pullout from the Gaza Strip should be part of a "total Israeli withdrawal" from all Palestinian areas, said a statement from the royal court.

"Israel's plan, envisaging a unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip should be part of a total Israeli withdrawal in accordance with the provisions of the road map," the king was quoted as telling Qureia.

The king added that any solution to the Palestinian issue should be decided by the parties concerned.

Abdullah briefed the Palestinian leader on "Jordan's efforts aimed at reinvigorating the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, including the monarch's latest contacts with the U.S. administration," said the official statement.

"We will shortly be involved in moves to stress that all final status issues must be subject to negotiation and that any partial solutions which exclude the Palestinians are doomed to failure," the king was quoted as telling Qureia.

	Jordan's King Abdullah in Amman on Monday. (Reuters)