Sharon Hopes To Convince Bush

The Palestinian premier warned the United States on Wednesday against recognizing some of Israel's West Bank settlements and restricting the rights of Palestinian refugees, saying such concessions guarantee "there will be no peace."

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was to meet President Bush in Washington on Wednesday in hopes of securing Mr. Bush's endorsement for his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements.

In return, Sharon wants U.S. assurances that Israel can retain large parts of the West Bank and that Palestinian refugees will not be allowed to return to land inside Israel as part of any negotiated agreement.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Wednesday that if Israel receives those assurances, it would signal the end of the peace process.

President Bush is emphatic that his "road map" peace plan remain the guiding policy, to create a Palestinian state living in peace with Israel, reports CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller.

The meeting with Sharon comes two days after the president's ranch summit with Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and a week before a session with Jordan's King Abdullah. It represents a renewed effort by Mr. Bush to be seen trying to revive the Mideast peace process which has been rendered lifeless by the cycle of Palestinian terror attacks and Israeli retaliations.

Since Sharon is facing strong opposition to his Gaza withdrawal plan from his hawkish allies at home, he needs President Bush's support for the second part of the plan, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger: holding onto five settlement blocs in the West Bank.

"Israel's basic security concerns have not changed, and we will have to keep our positions, our most important positions, on the West Bank," said Sharon adviser Zolman Shoval.

Palestinians reject both conditions, seeing the settlements as an illegal encroachment on land they want for a future state and supporting refugees' demands to return to the land they fled during the 1948-49 war.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said the Palestinians had "genuine concerns" about Israel's requests and the Palestinian leadership was meeting to discuss "these dangerous developments."

Qureia said any Israeli withdrawal must be in accordance with the "road map," an internationally backed peace plan calling for an independent Palestinian state that has been stalled in recent months.

"We hope the U.S. administration ... will remain committed to its responsibilities ... and not say anything that is considered a reward for a party or a side at the expense of the other party," he said. "Otherwise, there will be no peace."

Sharon has proposed uprooting all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza, as well as four settlements in the West Bank, as part of his plan to separate Israelis and Palestinians in the absence of progress toward a peace agreement. In return, Sharon hopes to expand five large blocs of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Plans continued for a referendum on the proposal within the ruling Likud Party. Sharon has said he would abide by the results of the poll, which has stirred strong passions within a party that has long supported settlement construction.

Several leading Likud figures oppose the withdrawal plan and have begun campaigning against it.

"We are working together to assist the Likud in their plan to get a very strong message to Sharon that we cannot give a prize to terror," said Jewish settlement activist Susan Wolf.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz was spearheading the campaign for the proposal, his office said Wednesday.

The party said Wednesday it was organizing two debates in the coming weeks between Sharon and Cabinet minister Uzi Landau, who opposes the plan.

Also Wednesday, two Palestinians were lightly wounded as villagers clashed with troops in the West Bank village of Biddou during a protest over a separation barrier Israel is building that runs through local orchards.

Youths threw rocks at troops who responded with rubber coated bullets and tear gas.

Israel says the barrier is needed to keep Palestinian militants out of Israel. Palestinians view the barrier as an Israeli land grab.

In Gaza City some 3,000 Palestinians, including 400 gunmen, attended a rally calling for the release of jailed uprising leader Marwan Barghouti and the other Palestinian prisoners.

One Palestinian, identified as Ali Amar, 22, was killed when he was shot in the head by gunmen firing in the air, hospital officials said.

Barghouti, the highest ranking Palestinian captured by Israel, has been charged with being involved in attacks that killed 26 Israelis. The rally came in the run-up to the day Palestinians mark in solidarity with their prisoners in Israeli jails.

Also Wednesday, about 3,000 Palestinian laborers refused to cross into the Erez industrial zone along the boundary between Gaza and Israel for the second day.

Workers say they were protesting what they called humiliating security checks, especially body searches.

Israeli troops also blew up a house in the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday that belonged to the family of Sabih Abu Saud, a suicide bomber who blew himself up in a West Bank village last November as the army hunted him down.

Israel routinely demolishes the houses of suicide bombers' families.