"We're not ready to lay down a specific calendar except for the fact we need to get started quickly, soon, so that we can seize the moment," Bush said at a joint press conference with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at Camp David, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Mubarak, on the other hand, focused during the press conference, on the importance of speeding the timetable for creating a Palestinian state.

"Here's the timetable I have in mind: we need to start immediately in building the institutions necessary for the emergence of a Palestinian state," Bush said.

The Egyptian leader -- apparently disappointed in his efforts to win Bush's support for accelerating steps leading to the declaration of a Palestinian state -- insisted that such a declaration was the only way that will restore hope among the Palestinians and is the only way to halt anti-Israeli violence.

"I don't think that violence will come to an end unless the people feel that there is hope for peace and there is something to show that peace is coming. If they didn't feel that, they will not stop violence. It will continue forever," Mubarak warned.

Mubarak also called for a total Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian-held territories as well as a halt to all Israeli settlement activity there, AFP said.

"Israel must end the siege imposed on the Palestinian people ... and halt assassinations and the repeated incursions in the territories under the control of the Palestinian Authority and immediately halt all settlement activities in the occupied territories," Mubarak said.

While Bush sharply criticized Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Mubarak called for giving Arafat "a chance" to show he can reform his Palestinian Authority, with an eye on creating a state in the future. "We should give this man a chance," Mubarak said.

Bush countered that Arafat "must do everything in his power to stop the violence, to stop the attacks on Israel. I mean everything," he said. "I am disappointed in his leadership. I think he has let the Palestinian people down."

Bush, who is set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Monday, said he and Mubarak agreed that the pursuit of what Washington says are crucial Palestinian reforms should go hand-in-hand with "a political dialogue."

"Part of the consultation process that we are having is to determine what's feasible in terms of that political dialogue, what's feasible in terms of the timetable that a lot of people are anxious to talk about," Bush said.

Bush also said that that Israel, too, "must work to create the conditions necessary to achieve peace."

Bush has said that he will make a fresh statement of U.S. policy on the Middle East after talks starting Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, but gave no details on what or when he would say it, AFP reported.

Mubarak had arrived in Washington late Wednesday bearing what one senior Arab official in Cairo said were the outlines of a new peace plan calling for the creation of a Palestinian state with temporary borders by early 2003.

Mubarak’s peace initiative aimed at breaking the Arab-Israeli deadlock through a proclamation of a Palestinian mini-state next year.

Absent public support from Bush on that initiative, the Egyptian president called for "strong" U.S. engagement "in the context of an agreed timeframe" for creating a such a state.

It is still too early to consider Mubarak’s mission a failure, said Hassan Nafaa, head of the political science department at Cairo University to Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite channel.