April 27, 2002	Saturday	Safar 13, 1423

CRAWFORD, April 26: US President George W. Bush on Friday said the time had now come for Israel to end its military offensive in Palestinian areas, after a fresh Israeli raid showed new defiance of US demands.

“There has been some progress but it’s now time to quit it altogether. It’s time to end this. Well, we’ll see what happens. I know they’ve heard us,” Bush told reporters at his ranch in Texas.

Bush’s comments came a day after he met Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and was warned US ties with the Arab world were at risk over Middle East violence. The Saudis urged Bush to take steps to rein in the Israeli offensive.

The president made a new call after the meeting for Israel to end its military campaign and peacefully resolve standoffs with Palestinians in the West Bank and Bethlehem.

But Israeli forces on Friday launched a raid on the West Bank town of Qalqilya, killing the local head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and seizing 43 people there and in nearby villages.

Bush said he had told Abdullah on Thursday that all the parties in the region had a responsibility to make peace and that Washington was committed to Israeli security.

“I told the crown prince that we’ve got a unique relationship with Israel and that one thing that the world can count on is that we will not allow Israel to be crushed,” he said.

‘QUARTET’ MEETING: The United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations will hold talks on the conflict in the Middle East in Washington on May 2, the United states said on Friday.

It will be the second meeting of the so-called “quartet,” which held its first meeting in Madrid on April 10 at the start of a mission to the region by US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The meeting will be held amid tension between Washington, which has strongly supported Israel while also calling on it end its military onslaught on Palestinian positions, and many European countries which have been more supportive of the Palestinians.

Secretary of State Richard Boucher told reporters that Powell, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and two senior EU officials would attend the meeting on Thursday afternoon at the State department.

As in Madrid, the European representatives will be Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique, whose country holds the revolving EU presidency, and Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy chief, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Boucher said: “We felt it very important as we went to the region, as we continue to try to move forward in the region to have the backing of the international community as well as the Arab states.”

He added: “The president has repeated again and again for all the parties to step up to their responsibilities, to try to move back towards a path of peace and a path of negotiations.”

Asked if he hoped for the same kind of backing for US peace initiatives in Washington that were offered in Madrid, Boucher said: “We not only hope, we expect it. This group has coordinated very, very well at different levels on Middle East policy.”

AMNESTY CHIEF: The head of Amnesty International, Irene Khan, is to visit the devastated Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin.

She is due to arrive in Jerusalem on Saturday night and head for the camp the following day, the Amnesty director in the Gaza Strip, Farid Hamdan, said.

She will be accompanied by legal and military experts.

“We have concluded that very serious breaches of international law were committed, and we are talking here of war crimes,” said Amnesty delegate Javier Zuniga, who visited Jenin last week.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has appointed a fact-finding mission to look into the events in Jenin, a move prompted by a Security Council resolution.—Reuters/AFP