ISRAEL

Bush freezes Mideast peace plan




THE NEW YORK TIMES

In a sharp rebuff to European allies, Russia and the United Nations, the Bush administration has decided not to put forth a plan for a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians until after the crisis in Iraq is resolved, administration officials say.

Negotiations aimed at drafting a three-year-long, step-by-step "road map" leading to the creation of a Palestinian state have been under way between the United States and these partners for nearly a year, but the administration has come under increasing pressure lately to adopt and publish the plan formally as the likelihood of a war with Iraq has risen.

As recently as December, President Bush met with European leaders and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, all of whom wanted the peace plan published immediately to ease the anger of Arabs in the Middle East who charge that the United States has been single-mindedly focused on Iraq.

Those who met with Bush said they had won assurances that the plan would be published as soon as the Israeli elections were completed in late January.

Now, officials say, Bush has changed his mind and regards the December pledge as unrealistic. The administration's decision not to proceed with publishing the plan - a seven-page document that calls for reciprocal steps that would also include replacing Yasser Arafat as the Palestinian leader and an end to attacks on Israel - has infuriated the Europeans and poisoned the atmosphere even as the administration has struggled to secure the allies' support for its possible war against Iraq.

Among the angriest allies is Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, whose aides say he has pleaded with Bush to become more involved in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

But administration officials say that it makes no sense to publish the peace plan and push the effort now with a possible war on the horizon, with anxiety in Israel deepening over being attacked during a war with Iraq and a multibillion-dollar Israeli request for American military aid on the table.