Olmert arrives in US for talks with Bush in new political climate

[Ron Burgundy]

AFP - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert arrived in the United States for talks with President George W. Bush on Iraq, Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the wake of a landmark US congressional election that may portend foreign policy shifts.

Olmert was to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Sunday and have talks with Bush at the White House on Monday.

Monday's summit, which comes six months after Olmert's first meeting with Bush at the White House, has been described in Israel as "a down-to-business meeting" on Iran.

With Tehran continuing to reject international calls to halt its nuclear enrichment efforts, Israel has in recent months moved the Iranian threat to the top of its agenda.

But Israel could have reason for concern about the resignation of US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a ferocious opponent of dialogue. His expected successor, Robert Gates, has signed onto a report calling for dialogue with Iran.

Backed by the United States, Israel has said sanctions are necessary following Tehran's failure to suspend uranium enrichment, a process which Israel, the United States and several European powers say hides a secret nuclear weapons programme -- despite Iranian insistence that it is for peaceful purposes.

Israel -- widely considered the Middle East's sole, if undeclared, nuclear weapons power -- considers Iran its chief enemy, pointing to calls from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map.

In Los Angeles on Friday, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Tehran was merely buying time by negotiating with the international community, and warned of a regional arms race if Tehran obtained an atomic weapon.

"The UN resolution said very clearly in July, stop the enrichment or face sanctions," Livni said. "And here we are in November, and still we are talking about the next resolution for 'soft sanctions'."

Olmert ratcheted up his anti-Iranian rhetoric calling Ahmadinejad "a man who is ready to commit crimes against humanity."

Israel, the premier said, is ready for a compromise, "but I don't believe that Iran will accept such a compromise unless they have good reason to fear the consequences ... In other words, Iran must start to fear."

An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, said Sunday that Tehran would deliver a "destructive" response to any Israeli military attack on its atomic sites and that it would continue trying to boost its capacity for uranium enrichment.

Hosseini's comments came after a top Israeli official refused to rule out a strike on the Islamic republic to halt the progress of its atomic programme, with the United Nations still unable to agree on sanctions against Tehran.

Olmert has also weighed in on US policy in Iraq in the wake of the Democrats' election triumph.

Democrats, who wrested control of the US Congress from Republicans on Tuesday, have long called for a reassessment of the US strategy in Iraq, with many calling for redeployment of US forces from the country.

"If there is a premature pullout before Iraq has a robust government with a strong authority that can keep the country from collapsing into an internal civil war, America will have to think about the possible ramifications on neighboring Arab countries with moderate governments," Olmert told The Washington Post newspaper and Newsweek magazine in an interview published Sunday.

Under increasing pressure to change US policy in Iraq, Bush is awaiting conclusions of a study group that may recommend opening talks with Iran and Syria as a way of prodding them to help restore stability in neighboring Iraq.

Bush will speak to members of the Iraq Study Group on the same day he is to meet Olmert. The group is expected to deliver its final report by year-end.

Bush and Olmert will likely also talk about Lebanon, according to a senior administration official.

It will be the first Bush-Olmert meeting since Israel's war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, in which the United States lent its unfailing political support to its ally.

On Saturday, Washington vetoed an Arab-sponsored draft resolution in the UN Security Council that would have condemned an Israeli artillery barrage that killed 19 people in the Gaza Strip last week.