Mubarak Tells Bush of Serious Concerns on Iraq

Under increasing pressure to outline a clear plan for Iraq, Bush announced he would hold a rare, prime-time news conference on Tuesday night in the White House East Room.

"The situation in Iraq has improved," Bush insisted, though the past week has seen some of the bloodiest fighting since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Bush and Mubarak, meeting on a gray, chilly day at the U.S. president's central Texas ranch, emerged from their talks to declare Israel's proposal to withdraw from the Gaza Strip as a positive development so long as it is part of the U.S.-backed peace "road map" envisioning a Palestinian state by 2005.

Bush said if Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "were to decide to withdraw from the Gaza, it would be a positive development" if it does not replace the road map.

Mubarak said "any withdrawal from the occupied territory is very highly appreciated" but "will not be accepted by the public opinion in the area" if not part of the peace plan.

Sharon has proposed evacuating Israeli settlements in hard-to-defend enclaves in the Gaza Strip and setting up a new "security line" in the West Bank.

IRAQ OVERSHADOWS MEETING

The meeting with Mubarak kicked off a week of diplomacy by Bush, who is slated to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday in Washington and Jordan's King Abdullah next week to lay the groundwork for Israel's withdrawal.

But the renewed effort by Bush on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was overshadowed by the bloody violence in Iraq, where U.S. military officials requested more troops on Monday to combat a Sunni insurgency in central Iraq and a Shi'ite revolt in the south.

Coalition forces reported about 70 deaths this month alone compared to 89 killed in action in the three-week war a year ago that toppled Saddam.

Mubarak raised his concerns at the start of the news conference with Bush, reflecting Arab apprehension about the deteriorating situation in Iraq.

"On Iraq, I conveyed to the president our serious concerns about the current state of affairs, particularly in the security and the humanitarian areas," Mubarak said.

He said he stressed the importance of restoring Iraq's sovereignty as soon as possible while preserving its territorial integrity. The administration has proposed returning power to the Iraqis June 30, but has faced increasing difficulty getting the process underway.

Mubarak also called for more efforts to increase the role of the United Nations.

Bush defended U.S. tactics and said U.N. representative Lakhdar Brahimi was already in Baghdad working on a system for transferring sovereignty.

He insisted U.S. military forces had acted against "lawlessness and gangs" trying to derail the transition to democracy, and that "you just can't let, you know, a small percentage of the Iraqi people decide the fate of everybody and that's what you're seeing."

"Our job is to provide security for the Iraqi people so that a transition can take place. And that's what you were seeing," he said. "And our job also is to protect American lives. If our soldiers are at risk, they will defend themselves."

Bush meets in Washington with Sharon on Wednesday.

U.S. and Israeli officials last week reached tentative agreement on key components of the Israeli plan, and Bush was expected to back it as an interim step.

U.S. and Israeli officials want to make sure the withdrawal does not allow the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas to cement its grip over Palestinian affairs in Gaza, where the militants have been a powerful force.

Egypt has offered to secure its side of the border with Gaza, a move Israel sees as crucial to stanching the flow of weapons to Hamas.