Bush, Blair vague on Middle East issue

Bush and Blair are optimistic about reviving the Middle East peace process following the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are optimistic about reviving the Middle East peace process following the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, but short on details of how to do it.

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"I believe we've got a great chance to establish a Palestinian state. I would like to see it done in four years. I think it is possible," Bush declared on Friday in a joint press conference with Blair after a White House summit with his main European ally.

Bush gave no sign of concrete agreements to advance the peace process, dodging a question on whether he would push for a freeze on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and hedging his bets on whether he would agree to host a Middle East conference.

"I'm all for conferences, just so long as the conferences produce something," Bush said, giving the impression that he did not think they would.

"We'll do whatever it takes to get a peace," Bush said, a comment echoed by Blair on the day Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was buried in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Neither Bush nor Blair mentioned Arafat.

The pledge "is coming at a time when you have the end of an era, so it certainly marks a potential," said Dennis Ross, special US envoy to the Middle East under former presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton.