US sends Powell to set peace talks

President Bush will send his Secretary of State, Colin Powell, back to the Middle East as early as next week to arrange a peace conference.

Mr Powell has urged such a move for several weeks, arguing that the next step to stop the violence is to get Israel and the Palestinians to sit down and talk about how to solve the crisis.

The President is preparing a statement on his prescription for moving the situation away from murder and chaos, but White House sources said today it will not satisfy America's allies in Europe and the Arab world, who have been asking for a detailed plan for peace in the region.

Mr Powell said Mr Bush was considering recognition of an "interim" Palestinian state, its exact geography to be vague for the moment, buy White House officials advised the public not to assume this is definite at this time.

They do promise that Mr Bush will be forthcoming on his ideas for an end to corruption in the Palestinian Authority and the creation of a security force designed to prevent atrocities such as today's Jerusalem bus bomb.

His national security adviser Condoleeza Rice said this week that the Palestinian Authority "cavorts with terror".

Arab countries have made it clear they want Mr Bush to call for a conference that would endorse Saudi Arabia's plan for total withdrawal of Israel from territories captured in 1967 and to lay out a timetable for the withdrawals and for Palestinian statehood.