By Ayesha Ahmad, IOL Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON, March 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's plans for helping the Middle East towards peace were welcomed by U.S. President George W. Bush when they met Tuesday at the White House, as Bush said the first step to resolving the Middle East crisis must be an end to the violence.

"Our government supports efforts to lay out a vision for a more peaceful tomorrow," Bush said, "but I want to remind everybody that it's going to be difficult to achieve any kind of peace as long as there is a cycle of violence."

Mubarak earlier had offered to host a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"I have invited them to come but they apologized for one reason or another. But there is no time to lose," he said, speaking earlier Tuesday to the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in Washington. "Negotiations should take place."

"We have to do what we can to bring the two sides together whether they like it or not," he said. "There are no other ways out."

Mubarak did not mention the idea after meeting with Bush at the White House Tuesday evening. Speaking to reporters there after the meeting, Bush praised the idea and the effort but returned to the necessity of stopping the violence first.

"The president of Egypt has made an offer for dialogue that will help lead to a peace… [his] offer was a meaningful offer, and we applaud his efforts," Bush said. "Egypt has led the way towards leading the region towards peace, and his offer was indicative of that type of leadership."

"The key, however, for us to get to the solution, is to bust this cycle of violence."

For months, Washington has insisted on placing the burden of responsibility for ending the violence on Arafat's shoulders. Senior officials have said this is because Israel's actions are viewed as retaliatory, while Palestinian attacks are interpreted as incendiary and unprovoked.

Despite efforts to quell the violence, more than 80 people, the vast majority of them  Palestinians, were killed in the past week as Israel carried out tank and helicopter assaults on Palestinian villages.

Earlier Tuesday, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that Bush was "deeply troubled" by the increased violence on the ground, and stressed that on the point of the difficulty of negotiating in a violent atmosphere, "he does believe ... that chairman Arafat needs to do more."

Fleischer added, however, that the president also believes that "Prime Minister Sharon must take steps to ease the plight of the Palestinian people."

Mubarak, giving comments after their meeting, addressed the issue of what was necessary to end the violence as well.

"The Palestinians are being asked for more effort," he said, "[but] the Israeli government should understand that the use of military power and unilateral measures against the Palestinian population - the closure of roads, the siege of towns and villages, the demolition of houses, the collective punishment that make progress more difficult - should stop," he said.

"Peace will only be achieved by ending Israeli occupation of territories… occupied in 1967," he said, adding that the Tenet and Mitchell peace plans should be implemented immediately guaranteeing security for all parties and "to put a decisive end to all this suffering."

Mubarak also addressed the peace proposal put forward by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, which calls for full Arab recognition of Israel in return for Israel's withdrawal to 1967 borders. Washington has praised the plan, but has not accepted or agreed to implement, saying, yet again, that the bloodshed must come to an end first.

Mubarak stressed the importance of the fact that "this is the first time in the history of [the Saudi ruling family], that they could say we are ready to normalize relations with Israel… the first time in history."

Bush also reaffirmed the U.S.’s alliance with Egypt in the "war on terror," alluding to Mubarak's long years of fighting with Islamic activists in Egypt as "fighting terror."

"He's an old hand at fighting terror, and I assured him that we were strong allies in this effort," Bush said. "There are some in the world who don't like President Mubarak because of what he stands for, a more open society. He's been a great leader of Egypt, and there are extremists who don't like him."

"This is an important moment in history, where nations must not flinch in the face of murder and terror and people who are willing to take innocent lives, people who hate free societies, and I am proud of our alliance and I appreciate his friendship," Bush said.