Sharon says Bush and Powell helped scuttle UN mission

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has credited the United States with helping to scuttle a UN fact-finding mission which was due to investigate allegations of an Israeli massacre in the West Bank city of Jenin.

The UN disbanded the mission last week after Israel refused to co-operate with it, but Mr Sharon said yesterday that US President George W Bush and his Secretary of State, Colin Powell, were influential in scuppering the investigation.