Bush to visit Saudi Arabia in mid-January

Riyadh: A Saudi official confirmed on Wednesday that US President George W. Bush is expected for his first visit to the kingdom in mid-January, and hoped he would pressure Israel to halt colonies in Palestinian territories.

The Saudi diplomat said Bush will visit the kingdom on January 14 as part of his Middle East tour and that the king will urge the American president to push Israel to allow the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Bush should "pressure Israel to halt colonies in (east) Jerusalem and occupied Palestinian territories if the US is serious about achieving a just and permanent peace in the region," the Saudi diplomat told The Associated Press.

Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz will also ask Bush to pressure Israel for "the establishment of the Palestinian state along side the state of Israel," the diplomat said.

Bush's nine-day trip to the Mideast starts on January 8. The US president is scheduled to travel to Israel, the West Bank, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

His visit comes after the Mideast peace conference he convened in Annapolis, Maryland in late November.

Since the conference, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has launched negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on a peace deal that both leaders hope to reach by the end of this year.

Saudi Arabia proposed a peace initiative in 2002 - later adopted by the Arab League - that offers peace to Israel in exchange for land seized by the Jewish state in the 1967 Middle East war.

In the past, Olmert said Israel would have to withdraw from parts of the West Bank, and signalled he would be prepared to hand over some Arab neighbourhoods of east Jerusalem to Palestinian sovereignty.

But Olmert told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that Israel would be able to hold on to some areas in the West Bank in any peace deal, with US approval. Although Israel has promised to halt building in its West Bank colonies, Olmert said this didn't apply to all colonies.