WASHINGTON, June 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In yet another attempt to secure a peace plan for solving the escalating crisis in the Middle East, U.S. President George W. Bush met Saturday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland.

Momentum for a diplomatic solution to the Middle East crisis gathered steam in Washington as Mubarak continued talks with U.S. leaders ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s visit on Monday, June 10, 2002.

Mubarak meets with Bush after meeting Friday with Secretary of State Colin Powell and several U.S. Senators at the Blair House residence, the latest in a stream of visiting Arab leaders who have urged the president to impose a political timeline for resolving the Middle East crisis.

Several top Egyptian officials, including Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S., Nabil Fahmy, accompanied Mubarak at the Blair House meetings. Attending Senators included Richard Shelby (R-AL), John Warner (R-VA), and Ted Stevens, (R-AK).

Bush's summit diplomacy - as well as his consultations with his top lieutenants - could determine the viability of a U.S. proposal for a still-unfocused ministerial-level conference on the Middle East scheduled to convene this middle of this year.

That meeting would bring regional representatives to the table with the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia, although a date, location and precise agenda have yet to be determined.

Asked Friday whether Bush expected to unveil a peace plan, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer replied, "He's still in the phase now of listening and gathering thoughts and ideas."

Murabak said in an interview Friday with CNN that the current strictures, placed on Yasser Arafat by the Israelis, make it impossible for the Palestinian leader to play a more constructive role in forging Mideast peace.

"How could he control this kind of violence? ... To control it in the atmosphere, he's living in, he has no control. He has no police, no intelligence, nothing to use against these people," Mubarak said.

If talks are to continue, Mubarak said in a separate interview in Saturday's Washington Post, "there should be some flexibility on the Israeli side," including withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank.

And while he spoke out strongly in favor of an independent Palestinian state, the president said the United States - and his own country - has an important role to play in realizing that goal.

"[Egypt's] role, and the role mainly of the United States as the key player, is to help the two parties to resume negotiations and solve their problems... to put an end to violence," Mubarak said.

For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is expected to stick to his refusal to negotiate with Arafat, whom he holds responsible for a wave of resistance operations in Israel.

Although the emphasis in the discussions have been on achieving Mideast peace, tensions have been rising steadily in the region as Israel, which carried out a massive West Bank offensive from March 29 to May 10, has recently stepped up hit-and-run raids on various towns and launched a ferocious six-hour attack on Arafat's base in Ramallah on Thursday.