JERUSALEM, May 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush will not discuss with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert details of his plan of further withdrawals from the West Bank during Olmert's coming visit to Washington next week, local newspaper the Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday.
"There will be no maps and there will be no exchange of letters," U.S. national security adviser Stephen Hadley was quoted by the post as saying.
According to the report, Hadley made the remarks when he met representatives of Israel and the American Jewish community in the White House on Monday to discuss Olmert's forthcoming visit. During the meeting, the senior U.S. official told Jewish leaders that the purpose of Bush's meeting with the Israeli prime minister was simply "to get to know Olmert", said the report.
Hadley also said that any discussion about the details of Olmert's so-called convergence plan would be premature and that it was "only the beginning of the conversation" about Israel's future plans, said the post.
Regarding the issue of providing extra aid to Israel to finance the convergence plan, the post said, citing unnamed sources, that it will not be raised during Olmert's visit.
On Monday, the White House said in a statement that Bush would meet with Olmert on May 23 and that Bush "looks forward to discussing with the prime minister the strong bilateral relationship between the United States and Israel as well as a wide range of regional and international issues."
The visit will be Olmert's first trip overseas since his centrist Kadima party won the March 28 general elections.
Earlier, Olmert said that the aim of his meeting with Bush would be to secure international support for more pullouts from the West Bank, including financial assistance.
Olmert has vowed to set Israel's final borders by 2010 and that the convergence plan will be his government's priority, under which Israel will quit isolated settlements in the West Bank but keep bigger ones with or without the Palestinians' agreement. Israel withdrew from the entire Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank last summer, a move supported by Washington. Enditem |