Bush Open to Gaza Pullout

President Bush said Monday that he would welcome an Israeli proposal to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, but signaled that such a move could not substitute for the U.S.-sponsored peace plan designed to lead to an independent Palestinian state.

Meeting at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Bush said the withdrawal proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would be “a positive development.” Yet he told reporters that he and Mubarak had agreed that “it doesn’t replace the ‘road map’ ” -- the plan devised last year by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.

“We both are in agreement that if Israel makes the decision to withdraw, it doesn’t replace the road map,” Bush said. “It is part of the road map, so that we can continue progress toward the two-state solution.”

Sharon also is coming to the United States this week, seeking support for a broad plan that also is likely to include annexation of parts of the West Bank.

Bush is under pressure from Arab leaders, whose help he badly needs in Iraq. Mubarak, King Abdullah II of Jordan and others object to Israel keeping West Bank land.

Mubarak told reporters that while any withdrawal from Gaza “would be highly appreciated, it will not be accepted by public opinion in the area” unless it is done in connection with the negotiated road map.

Bush has been under pressure from other quarters to push Egypt to accelerate its program of democratic reform. In a Washington Post opinion article last week, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the second highest-ranking Republican in the Senate, urged the administration to make a planned $1.8 billion in aid to Cairo for fiscal year 2005 conditional on reforms.

But Bush appeared to signal that he did not intend to push harder on that issue. He said he was “encouraged” by the debate over reform in Egypt, adding that he expected Egypt would “set the standard in the region for democracy by strengthening democratic institutions and political participation.”

Analysts said that while Bush had urged Egypt to undertake more reforms, he was focused on winning its support on Iraq and help in supporting any Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The administration would like Egypt to help police the Egypt-Gaza border to block any flow of weapons into the strip, and to train and equip Palestinians to take charge of security.

“The strategic trumped the ideological,” said Philip C. Wilcox Jr., president of the Washington-based Foundation for Middle East Peace.

The Egyptian government has urged Washington to see to it that Iraq’s reconstruction does not destabilize the region, and pressed the U.S. to set a specific date for withdrawal. Mubarak also encouraged increasing the United Nations’ role in Iraq.