Bush welcomes Saudi prince to ranch

CRAWFORD, Texas -- Amid the serenity of rustling grasses, President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah confronted the rising tensions over Israel, Iraq and Islamic terror that are straining their nations' 70-year alliance. \nThe leaders met Thursday at Bush's ranch home with a formality he normally leaves at the Texas state line. \nThe president, in a business suit, watched out the breezeway window for the Saudi leader, whose five-car motorcade rolled into the circular driveway a bit late. Cowboy boots and an oversized silver belt buckle were Bush's concession to the laid-back style that usually prevails here. \nHe welcomed Abdullah, who wore a flowing brown robe, with a long handshake and quiet exchange of pleasantries before showing him inside for talks that were expected to be less comfortable. \nAgainst the backdrop of flaring anti-American anger on Arab streets, the crown prince bore a warning to Bush that U.S. backing of Israel -- and seeming tolerance of Israeli military offensives against Palestinians -- had damaged prospects for Mideast peace. \n"We believe the administration could have been stronger on (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon, made it clearer to him that negotiations cannot be done under the barrel of a gun," Nail Al-Jubeir, a spokesman for the Saudi embassy, told reporters here. \nAl-Jubeir said the crown prince brought a frank message: "The message is, Sharon has been acting up, and the U.S. government needs to rein him in. We cannot maintain the peace process with this stuff going on." \nImages of Israeli-inflicted devastation in Palestinian refugee camps "make it more difficult for friends of the U.S. to stand up with the U.S.," he said. \nMore broadly, Arab leaders have warned of serious damage to U.S.-Arab relations and to tenuous Arab support for the U.S. anti-terrorism war, which Bush wants to expand into Iraq. \nSome oil prices surged Thursday on fears that Abdullah would threaten to choke off Saudi oil to the United States. Al-Jubeir denied that.\n"We've always been a reliable source of oil, and we'll continue to be," he said. \nThe American side was there in force: Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and White House chief of staff Andrew Card. \nCheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top administration officials laid the groundwork by meeting first with Abdullah on Wednesday in Houston. \nDespite the suit and tie, Bush aimed to inject warmth into his first face-to-face meeting with Abdullah. A small table in the breezeway was set for a cozy lunch, and aides said Bush hoped to tap Abdullah's own love of land -- he owns an enormous farm in Saudi Arabia -- by showing him around some of Prairie Chapel Ranch's wooded canyons, abloom with Texas bluebonnets and wild pink poppies. \nSaudi and other Arab leaders take strong issue with Bush's support for Sharon, who has kept Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat under virtual house arrest in the West Bank while Israeli forces, in defiance of Bush's own April 4 demands, press forward in a bloody hunt for Palestinian terrorists. \nFurther straining the U.S.-Saudi relationship -- at a time when Bush is trying to stick to a zero-tolerance policy against terrorists -- are recent displays of Saudi support for Palestinian suicide bombings of Israeli civilians. \nSaudi Arabia's ambassador to Britain published a poem praising such "martyrs," and the Saudi government has sponsored a telethon that collected $100 million to help the bombers' families. Powell testified to the Senate this week that some of that money may have gone to elements of the militant Hamas organization. \nAbdullah wants Bush to pressure Sharon to release Arafat. \nBush hoped Thursday's meetings would advance the Mideast peace process. \nIt was Abdullah who gave momentum earlier this year to an initiative meant to quell Mideast violence by offering peace and full recognition to Israel in exchange for the territory Jordan and Syria lost in the 1967 war. \nAbdullah's plan also includes the creation of a Palestinian state, an idea for which Bush has voiced support. Also under review is an international conference on Mideast peacemaking. Bush so far has been noncommittal, and Arafat's participation in any such conference remains in dispute.