WASHINGTON - U.S. President George W. Bush said on Tuesday that he would press Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at their meeting next week to abide by a U.S.-backed road map peace plan that calls for "no expansion" of Jewish settlements.
"Our position is very clear that the road map is important. And the road map calls for no expansion of the settlements,” Bush said.
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The comments follow reports about plans to construct 3,500 homes between the Maaleh Adumim and Jerusalem.
While senior U.S. Officials have expressed concerns about the Maaleh Adumim project, Bush stopped short of criticizing it directly and praised Sharon.
"I'm optimistic because I firmly believe that Ariel Sharon wants to have a peaceful partner, wants there to be a democracy in the Palestinian territories," Bush told reporters after meeting with members of his cabinet.
U.S. expects Israel to uphold commitments
The settlement issue threatened to be the only sticking point in talks next Monday between Bush and Sharon at the U.S. President's Crawford, Texas, ranch.
"There's a lot of hard work to be done, but we're making progress," said Bush, who earlier has pledged to press Israel to make “sacrifices" to bolster peace talks.
U.S. Officials said the administration has been pressing Israel behind the scenes to curb settlement activity. They said they raised the issue in talks at the White House on Monday with Dov Weisglass, a top Sharon adviser.
"Israel has made commitments under the road map and under the statements that Prime Minister Sharon has made ... to stop settlement activity," State Department spokesman Richard
Boucher said.
"We think those are very important commitments, and we expect to see them upheld, he said."
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