Bush plans key Middle East summit
Despite recent setbacks to the peace process, Mr Bush hopes to "focus on moving forward", White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in announcing the planned meeting.
Mr McClellan said Mr Bush would also go separately to Egypt next week to meet with Arab leaders, and to Qatar, headquarters of the US Central Command, to meet with US troops.
The meeting with Sharon and Abbas will occur in the Jordanian Red Sea port city of Aqaba, Mr McClellan said.
He said PLO Chairman Yassar Arafat will not be invited.
Mr McClellan said Mr Bush will go to the Middle East next Tuesday, immediately after the conclusion of the Group of Eight summit of major industrial democracies in Evian, France.
He will first go to Sharm el-Sheik, an Egyptian resort, to meet with Arab leaders. On Wednesday, June 4, he will go to Aqaba to meet with Jordanian King Abdullah and, "conditions permitting", meet with both Mr Abbas and Mr Sharon.
Although the trip to the Mideast had been widely discussed, and parts of it announced in the region, it was the first time the White House has publicly outlined the president's schedule.
The announcement came after momentum in Middle East peacemaking slowed as Yassar Arafat reasserted his position as the chief Palestinian negotiator with the Israelis.
The Palestinians postponed a meeting between Mr Abbas and Mr Sharon that had been scheduled for yesterday, saying Mr Abbas wanted to consult with Mr Arafat. But despite Mr Arafat's efforts to claim a role at the peace table, Mr McClellan said Mr Bush still intended to meet in Jordan with Mr Abbas and Mr Sharon, both separately and then in a three-way meeting.
"We fully expect the meeting to take place," Mr McClellan said.
"The president very much looks forward to meeting with Prime Minister Abbas for the first time as well as meeting with Prime Minister Sharon again," the presidential spokesman said.
"Mr Abbas is committed to reforms and moving the process forward as well as cracking down on terrorists," Mr McClellan added.
While optimistic that such a meeting will take place, Mr McClellan also cautioned that: "We want to make sure the environment is ripe for productive talks."
While the administration tried to minimise the postponement of the Abbas-Sharon meeting as merely technical, Mr Arafat told the PLO's executive committee he wanted to review security proposals before Mr Abbas met again with Mr Sharon.
The move by Mr Arafat supported a worldwide perception that no matter how hard the Bush administration tries to marginalise him he is the paramount leader of the Palestinians.
Mr Bush will wrap up his trip on June 5 by visiting US troops in Doha, the forward US command post from where the Iraq war was managed.
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