"Arafat is a leader elected by the Palestinian people and we have no plans to change our policy," Bondevik

TEL AVIV, July 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas said Wednesday, July 17, that he would meet U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington next week, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon mulled an unsuccessful trip to persuade European leaders to sideline President Yasser Arafat.

Sharon flew in from Norway late Wednesday, after failing to convince his Norwegian counterpart Kjell Magne Bondevik to sever ties with veteran Arafat.

The rebuff was the second in days for Sharon, after receiving a similar response from British officials earlier in the week.

"Arafat is a leader elected by the Palestinian people and we have no plans to change our policy," Bondevik was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying after Sharon's visit to his hometown of Molde.

Norway is the place where the now-failed Oslo Middle East peace accords was inked in 1993, with much to blame has since heaped on Israel for maintaining long-standing occupation of Palestinian territories.

Abbas’ Trip 

Meanwhile, Abbas accepted an invitation to meet Bush in Washington later this month in a move designed to give momentum to the troubled peace process and bound to boost the Palestinian Prime Minister's profile on the world stage.

"Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said he would be traveling to Washington to meet President Bush on July 25," Abbas's office said in a statement released in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"This visit will be centered on the commitments made by Israel to freeze settlements in the progress in the peace process," the statement quoted Abbas as saying.

There was no immediate confirmation of the meeting from the White House but a U.S. official said July 25 was the target date for the encounter.

Abbas's first visit to Washington is expected to give a major fillip to the peace process and will take place around the same time as a similar trip by Sharon, who has also been invited by Bush to visit the White House at the end of the month.

‘Criticized’

"This visit will be centered on the commitments made by Israel to freeze settlements in the progress in the peace process," Abbas

Abbas’ decision to travel to Washington was criticized by Islamic resistance movement Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Leaders of the two organizations, which are currently observing a freeze on anti-Israeli attacks, said that Abbas should not have agreed to travel to the States for his first official visit while Arafat was still confined to his Ramallah headquarters.

Arafat and Abbas have been at loggerheads over the approach to the peace talks with Israel.

The Palestinian premier, who was appointed in April by a reluctant Arafat after international pressure, has come under fire from members of their Fatah movement who are angered in particular by his failure to persuade Israel to free more than 350 of the estimated 6,000 Palestinians currently in Israeli jails.

But former Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said Abbas's Washington trip had the Palestinian leader's "complete blessing".

Meanwhile, Abbas was set to resume dialogue with Sharon next week, officials said Thursday.

The two prime ministers would meet "at the beginning of next week before Mahmud Abbas' trip to Washington", a senior Israeli official told AFP.

"A Bribe"

Bush has refused to meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, accusing him of fomenting more than 33 months of "violence", but has praised Abbas for trying to implement the U.S.-led peace "road map."

Hamas and Islamic Jihad also said Abbas must resist any pressure from Washington to dismantle their resistance organizations or confiscate their weapons.

"We demand that he does not comply or respond to the American pressure," Hamas political leader Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi said.

Rantissi said that any attempt by the Authority to dismantle his organization or seize its weapons was doomed to failure like previous attempts by "the Zionist enemy ... during the occupation".

Mohammed al-Hindi, a leader of Islamic Jihad, also criticized the July 25 trip and said that any pledges of funds secured by Abbas should be regarded as an unacceptable "bribe to stop the Intifida" to occupation.

"America is carrying out the policy of the extreme rightists in Israel, … the Americans could offer some money but we would consider it as a bribe to stop the Intifada," said Hindi.