Bush visits Middle East

US President George W Bush has flown into the Middle East to celebrate Israel's 60th birthday and try to kick-start peace efforts.Mr Bush, who faces deep doubt he can secure a deal between Israel and the Palestinians before leaving office in January, visits Jerusalem first, where a bribery investigation against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is under way.Mr Olmert and his wife, Aliza, greeted the president and First Lady Laura Bush at a red-carpet ceremony at Tel Aviv's David Ben-Gurion Airport.The PM, fighting for his political survival, said he and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had reached "understandings and points of agreement" on some issues.But Palestinian officials were sceptical and one noted there was "a long way to go".Mr Bush is trying to salvage a foreign policy legacy encompassing more than the unpopular war in Iraq.Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas agreed at a US-hosted conference in Annapolis, Maryland, last November to try to reach a peace deal, including an agreement on Palestinian statehood, by the end of this year.But talks have faltered over Israeli settlement expansion plans in the occupied West Bank and violence in and around the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, where cross-border rocket fire has drawn a tough Israeli military response.

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ITN | May 14, 2008

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