Bush To Offer Mideast Plan

Heading into a series of high-stakes talks, President Bush said Friday he will soon present a plan for moving the struggling Mideast peace process forward.

The president said he was optimistic that weekend talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and a Monday meeting with Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will be fruitful.

Meanwhile, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat asked the United States Friday to convene a Mideast peace conference as quickly as possible.

The Israeli army said it captured a woman suicide bomber as its forces raided two West Bank cities on Friday, keeping pressure on the Palestinians a day after tanks stormed Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah. One of the cities was Jenin, hometown of the latest Palestinian suicide bomber.

"This is part of a fierce war against peace," Arafat told reporters at his battered headquarters after talks with U.N. Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen.

The stepped-up incursions following a suicide bombing that killed 17 Israelis, including 13 soldiers, on Wednesday and heightened tensions ahead of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to Washington next week.

The latest violence has also undercut a new round of international diplomacy aimed at halting 20 months of conflict.

"After my meetings with President Mubarak and Prime Minister Sharon, I'll talk to our country about how I think we should move forward," President Bush said after a White House meeting about fighting terrorism on American soil.

Mr. Bush did not offer specifics, but advisers have said they are preparing a series of options for Bush to consider, including offering a timetable for peace talks and perhaps some solutions to the thorniest political issues. The president hopes to have the new initiative in place in time for next month's Mideast conference in Turkey, aides said.

The president or, less likely, Secretary of State Colin Powell, is likely to lay out the new plan in an upcoming speech, officials said.

"Progress is being made. The Arab world now understands they need to be involved in pushing for peace and fighting against the terrorist actions that...make it very difficult to achieve a peace," Mr. Bush said.

Hewing his tough line against Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the president said "I still am disappointed in Mr. Arafat's leadership. He needs to cut off terrorist activities."

Mubarak, however, said Friday that Arafat should not be held responsible for suicide bombings by militants against Israeli civilians.

"He has no control," Mubarak said in an interview with CNN. "He has no police, no intelligence. How do you ask him to control that?"

Mubarak is bringing Mr. Bush an urgent appeal to set a schedule for ending Israel's hold on the West Bank and Gaza and for establishing a Palestinian state.

About 20 tanks rolled into Jenin, a stronghold of extremists at the northern edge of the West Bank, in what the Israeli military called a "routine patrol." Israeli forces declared a curfew in Jenin and five nearby villages, confining residents to their homes.

Witnesses said a half-dozen tanks and troop carriers rolled into Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, where soldiers conducted house-to-house searches and arrested several Palestinians, including a 21-year-old woman.

An army spokesman said the woman was suspected of plotting to carry out a suicide bombing against Israelis.

Israeli forces also patrolled the southern edge of Bethlehem Friday but did not enter the town, the military said. Palestinians said Israeli forces briefly entered the town of Tulkarem and arrested a female student. The operations were a response to a string of Palestinian attacks.

A teen-age bomber who blew up an Israeli bus with an explosives-laden car on Wednesday set out from Jenin. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility, but Israel blamed Arafat, charging that he has done nothing to stop the attacks.

On Friday, Arafat urged the international community to stop Israel's almost daily incursions in Palestinian-ruled territory.

"I am addressing this appeal to the whole international world to stop this fascism, this Nazism, this dirty work against our people," Arafat said.