Yasser Arafat likely leader of Palestine

WASHINGTON -- The United States is committed to a Palestinian state with Yasser Arafat as its likely leader, President Bush's foreign policy advisers said Sunday, heading off opposition expected from Israel's prime minister at his White House meeting this week.\nAdministration officials also are looking for a radical overhaul of Palestinian governance, ending corruption and quashing terror.\nAriel Sharon was bringing with him about 100 pages of documents for U.S. review that he says link the Palestinian leader to the terror that led to an unprecedented Israeli offensive in the West Bank.\nSharon, whose visit Tuesday with Bush will be the fifth since the president took office, has said that Arafat is "irrelevant" and a terrorist. U.S. officials said Arafat -- who has yet to meet with Bush -- still represents the Palestinians.\n"It serves us all better if we continue to work with all Palestinian leaders and to recognize who the Palestinian people look to as their leader," Secretary of State Colin Powell told ABC's "This Week."\nAdded Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser: "The White House position is that we're not going to try to choose the leadership for the Palestinian people. Chairman Arafat is there."\nLeaders of Congress, which overwhelmingly condemned Arafat and supported Israel in non-binding votes last week, acknowledged that Bush had no one else to turn to.\n"At this point Yasser Arafat is the best of what's probably not a particularly strong field. And in that regard, I would support the president," said Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., on "Fox News Sunday."\nIsraeli officials say Arafat's alleged involvement in terror plotting counts him out as a peace partner.\n"We need to be able to keep talking, but with another Palestinian leadership," said Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat, who was accompanying Sharon to the United States.\nPalestinians dismiss the documents as forgeries.\nSharon is also under pressure from hawks in his government who seek to return Israel to a position of rejecting Palestinian statehood.\nBush has envisioned a two-state solution, and both Powell and Rice both spoke in those terms.\n"Do you go to an interim state, a provisional state?" Powell said on NBC's "Meet the Press," speaking of possible prospects for peace. "Or do you just have phases that go to the final state solution that we're looking for?"\nRice said the Bush administration "will talk to the Israelis about what makes sense for Israeli security and for the establishment of a Palestinian state down the road."\nThey made it clear that Arafat, too, must move decisively on reforms.\n"We can talk about reconstitution of the Palestinian Authority in a non-corrupt, more responsive and more democratic way, a transparent organization rebuilding its infrastructure and security apparatus," Powell said.\nThe administration is expecting "new behavior in the war on terrorism, and we are bringing new factors to bear on Chairman Arafat," Rice said.\nPalestinians reacted sharply, saying that the first priority should be to restrain Israel.\n"Condoleezza Rice, instead of being busy with our internal situation and the need to reform our authority, should work on another priority," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, the Palestinian Information Minister. "She has to work on Israel to stop killing us."\nThe offensive and Palestinian resistance have seen support for both Mideast leaders soar among their peoples, and Powell said that could provide a platform for peace initiatives, including his announcement last week of an international conference this summer.\nPowell and Rice said they expected Arab nations to take a more central role in bringing peace to the region.\nThe Clinton administration blamed Arab fence-sitting in part for the collapse of the 2000 peace talks. Bush warmly welcomed the recent Arab League initiative -- led by Saudi Arabia -- to normalize relations with Israel in exchange for its relinquishing lands it captured in the 1967 Mideast War.\nDovish Israeli leaders have been ready to return most of those lands, but Sharon insist on retaining at least part of the areas, citing security and historical claims.\nPowell suggested that was unrealistic.\n"They said we should start from the premise we'll have to get back to the '67 borders," Powell said. "So we're going to have to discuss this issue."\nRice and Powell differed in tone on Jewish settlements in Palestinian areas, with Powell suggesting that stemming their growth was a priority.\n"Something has to be done about the problem of the settlements, the settlements continue to grow and continue to expand," Powell said. "It's not going to go away."\nRice said other issues -- including extinguishing terror -- were higher on the agenda.\n"Let's take one thing at a time," Rice said. "Settlements will eventually be an issue. But I think we have to get the context right here. We need to end the terror, create a situation in which there is better security and no violence."\nThe differences reflect administration divisions between those who favor the Israel's tough actions and those, including Powell, who are more solicitous of Arab demands.\nMideast diplomacy continues Wednesday when King Abdullah II of Jordan comes to the White House. The king was to see Powell, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld on Monday.