RAMALLAH: Embattled Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas’ position has been weakened rather than strengthened after his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon managed to puncture the enthusiasm engendered by Abbas’ first ever appearance at the White House, analysts said on Wednesday.

Abbas managed to persuade Bush to make a rare public criticism of Israel last Friday when the US president said that a controversial security barrier being constructed across the West Bank was undermining confidence in the peace process.

But after his own audience with Bush on Tuesday, Sharon pledged that Israel would push ahead with a project which is seen by Palestinians as an attempt to set in stone the boundaries of a future settlement.

Allies of Abbas had warned that the outcome of his overseas trip — which also featured talks with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the leaders of Jordan, Egypt and Morocco — would be crucial to his hopes of political survival.

He has had to endure constant sniping from fellow members of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement who are unhappy with his failure so far to force more concessions from Israel on issues such as Palestinian prisoners and the continuing siege on Arafat. He is also likely to have to brief a sceptical Palestinian parliament about his overseas accomplishments.

Abbas won praise from Bush for his “vision” and “courage” but observers say that there is little evidence of an about-turn from Washington in its instinctive alliance with Israel.

Apart from Sharon’s statement on the barrier, Bush also failed to wring commitments from the Israeli premier on a halt to settlement activity or troop withdrawals from more Palestinian towns.

Hani al-Masri, a columnist with the Palestinian Al-Ayyam daily, said that the challenges facing Abbas had now increased.

Abdelkarim Barghuti, professor of philosophy at Bir Zeit university, agreed that Abbas’ position had been weakened rather than strengthened by the flurry of States-side diplomacy.—AFP