WASHINGTON, May 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon arrived in Washington Sunday, May 5, for talks with U.S. President George W. Bush and other U.S. officials on ways to sideline Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and maintain colonial settlers on Palestinian land occupied by Israel.

The plane carrying the Israeli leader touched down at Andrews Air Force Base outside the U.S. capital at 5:25 pm (2125 GMT), an Air Force official said. 

Sharon arrived in Washington armed with a 100-page intelligence file that aims to prove Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority both financed and oversaw the execution of a wave of resistance strikes that sparked Israel's West Bank offensive last month. 

Sharon is to meet Bush Tuesday, May 7, at the White House for a fifth time. Arafat has yet to be invited to the White House since Bush became president. 

The documents Sharon brings purport to show Arafat's signature on payments to groups who organized attacks and arranged arms purchase payments. They also allege Arafat routinely diverts European and U.S. aid to finance these operations. 

"All sides should come to the conclusion, the Americans, the Israeli and the Europeans, that Arafat can no longer be part of the peace process," said Israeli minister-without-portfolio Danny Naveh, who compiled the study from documents allegedly seized during the army's West Bank campaign. 

Palestinians say Sharon is bringing his usual laundry list of desires, including a desire to sideline Arafat and a peace in which colonial settlers remain on Palestinian land occupied by Israel.

Sharon has provided no details on a peace plan he brings to Washington, but Israeli political sources said it has not changed from previous proposals calling for a long-term interim arrangement that would include Israeli security buffer zones in the West Bank and leave colonial settlements in place, news agencies reported. 

He has also called for a regional conference that would include "moderate" Arab leaders, saying that Arafat can no longer be a peace partner. But Sharon failed to persuade Bush at their last meeting in February to seek a replacement Palestinian leadership. 

However, Sharon's argument was set to receive a close hearing after White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice observed that Washington "has long been concerned about the potential ties between the terrorists and the Palestinian Authority." 

And following closely the argument of Sharon's conservative Likud party, Rice said the current leadership was not conducive to the creation of a Palestinian state, and that Washington intended to "press" Arafat. 

"The Palestinian leadership that is there now, the Authority, is not the kind of leadership that can lead to the Palestinian state that we need," Rice said on Fox News Sunday. 

But Washington also had tough words for hard-line Sharon, who loathes the idea of jettisoning Jewish colonial settlements built in the Palestinian territories. 

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called for negotiators to deal with the hot-button issue. 

"I think it's clear both in the previous administration and in this administration that something has to be done with the problem of settlements," Powell told NBC. 

"I'm sure this will be part of our discussion with Prime Minister Sharon." 

Palestinian leaders voiced outrage at Rice's remarks, with top political negotiator Saeb Erakat saying Washington was seeking a Palestinian surrender before the Israeli occupation army. 

"This is unacceptable arrogance and interference," Erakat said. 

Palestinians were also outraged by the shooting to death of a Palestinian mother and her two small children near Jenin by Israeli troops, just hours before tank fire killed a Palestinian boy in Tulkarem, also in the northern West Bank. 

Arafat, meanwhile, has asked Qatar, acting head of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, to host a new meeting of the pan-Islamic group, the official Qatar QNA agency reported.