Carter Willing To Mediate Mideast Peace

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Thursday he was willing to mediate peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, but only if they and the U.S. government asked him to.

"We would go immediately and with great alacrity," he said during a speech to students at the University of Uppsala.

Carter gave no indications he had been asked to do so, however. He helped broker the 1978 Camp David accords that led to peace between Israel and Egypt. The agreement resulted in the Peace Prize for Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

Carter said escalating tension between Israelis and Palestinians hasn't been stemmed and asserted that U.S. President George W. Bush wasn't impartial about the issue.

"Until President Bush, every president, Democratic or Republican, has in my opinion played a balancing role as a trusted mediator," he said. "Now though it seems obvious that the present administration in Washington is completely compatible with the Israeli government and they have completely ignored ... the Palestinian Authority."

But the Democrat did praise the Bush administration for backing away from earlier threats of unilateral action against Iraq.

Speaking to 1,800 students at the University of Uppsala, 37 miles north of Stockholm, Carter urged the United States and Great Britain "to be patient, to give Saddam Hussein a chance to correct his mistakes and not see a pre-emptive attack as a first priority."

Earlier Thursday, Carter said the White House in the past three months had reversed its previous stated policy on removing Saddam Hussein with or without consent from the United Nations and its belief that weapons inspectors "would have no use."

"I think the United States has shown now its willingness to work with other countries to concentrate on the weapons of mass destruction, to depend upon the inspection team and to seek United Nations guidance on the best policies," he said after meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson.

The former Democratic president received the Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, on Tuesday. As is tradition for peace prize winners, Carter traveled to Stockholm to address the Swedish parliament.

Carter told lawmakers he was thankful to Sweden for "producing Alfred Nobel, who has helped to give me this week, one of the most challenging and humbling and gratifying experiences of my life."

The Nobel Prizes are handed out every year on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.

"There is no doubt that during this week of each year the world is reminded of the importance of ... peace and human rights," Carter said.

During the address in Uppsala, Carter took questions from four students who sat on the stage with him.

When asked who he would nominate for the Peace Prize, something he is eligible to do, he suggested the founders of Habitat for Humanity. The group's mission is to build basic, low-cost houses for as many people as it can worldwide.