Bush asked Mubarak to work with the Palestinian Authority to consolidate their security forces

WASHINGTON, June 19 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – U.S. President George W. Bush said Wednesday, June 19, he had asked Egypt to help beef up the Palestinian Authority's security forces in hopes of quelling anti-Israeli violence by resistance fighters.

Bush said during a brief public appearance he had asked Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak "to work with the Palestinian Authority to consolidate their security forces under prime minister (Mahmud) Abbas" to improve their abilities to dismantle what he called terrorist groups, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.

The U.S. president also suggested he may soon dispatch his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to the region, telling reporters: "I'll let you know when we send her."

Taking apart groups behind anti-Israeli attacks is required under the U.S.-backed "road-map" to peace, which calls for the creation by 2005 of an independent Palestinian state living at peace with Israel.   

Israel made a qualified approval to the “roadmap”, after Washington promised to give notice to its 15 reservations during the three-stage implementations, while the Palestinian government gave unconditional acceptance.

Palestinian resistance groups said Israel is to blame for launching a "coup de grace" in the heart of the U.S.-driven roadmap after its occupation forces carried out an assassination attempt on Hamas political leader Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi's life.

They fear that agreeing a ceasefire would let the door open for Israel to carry out more aggression and settlement activities on Palestinian territories and end their dreams for an end to occupation.

A senior Egyptian intelligence official, General Mustapha al-Behiri has been in Gaza City since Sunday, June 15, but has yet to win support for ceasefire proposals from Palestinian factions.

Egypt, a traditional mediator since becoming the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, has been undertaking intensive efforts to convince Palestinian organizations to observe a truce in their anti-Israeli attacks.

Earlier, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters that Bush was focused on efforts to stamp out attacks against Israelis "because terror remains the biggest threat to the implementation of the road-map."

The U.S. president "remains determined to help the Palestinian Authority to fight terror, to work with Arab nations in the region so they can help the Palestinian Authority to fight terror," Fleischer said.

"That's where much of his efforts are focused now," the spokesman said.

Many Palestinian leaders charged that the United States has been giving a free hand to Israeli occupation forces, turning a blind eye to all of their attacks against innocent civilians.

Washington had earlier rebuffed a proposal by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan for the dispatch of an international peacekeeping force to stem the spiraling violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Bush remains "hopeful and optimistic" in the long term and in the short term, "he remains determined to keep the parties working together -- principally the Israelis and the Palestinians -- focused on the steps they need to take to implement the roadmap" to peace, Fleischer said.

On Sunday, U.S. arms control chief John Bolton arrived in Egypt for talks on ways to check the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons in the Middle East and the means to deliver them.

Bolton said he discussed with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and others "steps that the United States and others are taking to prevent the spread of those weapons, obviously, particularly here in the region."