Powell faces daunting task on mission to end bloody cycle of Middle East violence

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Leading article: The President's about-turn shows that a determined US can influence Israel

Before he became America's most senior diplomat, Colin Powell was America's most senior soldier. He will require the skills of both professions in the next few days when he meets Ariel Sharon to discuss President Bush's demands, in what will be the United States' most difficult encounter with its close ally in a very long time.

The Israeli Prime Minister was told to halt settlement-building, immediately end Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas, withdraw to the boundaries established by UN resolutions and stop humiliating Palestinians at check-points.

Many commentators criticise George Bush for doing too little, too late. By failing to dispatch General Powell immediately to the Middle East, Mr Bush gave Mr Sharon another week to finish his bloody business, they say. Others are amazed that America can repeatedly demand action from Yasser Arafat while the ailing leader is besieged inside his Ramallah compound, accompanied only by a few aides.

There is some truth in all of this. Mr Bush decided as early as Tuesday that he was going to dispatch his Secretary of State, who leaves for the Middle East tomorrow.

He could easily have told Mr Powell to go there and then. There is equally no doubt that his 18-minute speech on Thursday was unbalanced: he reserved his harshest criticism yet for the Palestinian leader, who he said was "largely responsible" for his currently predicament, while he repeated his belief that Israel had the right to defend itself against the "terror" that now dominates Mr Bush's every moment.

And yet Mr Bush said things he has never said before and he said them in terms Israel has not heard in the 15 months since he became President. Perhaps most striking was the demand that Israel halt its policy of building settlements in Palestinian areas, considered the most hated totem of Israel's arrogance and imperialism.

Mr Bush's spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said the President did not expect immediate action from Israel. "Major events don't necessarily happen overnight," he said. [But] the President expects results, and he expects them as soon as possible." Mr Fleischer said General Powell had no plans yet to meet with Yasser Arafat.

A White House official told The Washington Post: "One of the early challenges will be for Israel to face the fact that settlement building has to stop. I think the President made that clear in unmistakable terms."

Mr Bush also called for an immediate end to the blockade of that has strangled the Palestinian economy and stopped many Palestinians working. He said it was vital that Palestinians were not made to suffer the sort of daily humiliations at Israeli checkpoints that might persuade a young, unemployed Palestinian that becoming a suicide bomber made sense.

Mr Sharon will like none of this, particularly the demand over settlement building. After all, it was Mr Sharon himself, pursuing his belief that Israelis have the right to go anywhere in Israel or the Palestinian territories, who sparked the latest wave of violence in September 2000 when he visited Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Nor will he enjoy being told what to do with his armed forces by a president some believe Mr Sharon has played like a pack of cards since 11 September, equating Israel's desire to take on militants with the President's obsessive "war on terror".

Why Mr Bush acted is not clear. Aides cite a "spiralling level of violence that might expand beyond the current area", as well as growing international criticism. He is also desperate to keep open his options for an attack on Iraq.

But Mr Bush has acted in a seemingly determined fashion. He is sending a man who probably has as much stature as himself to "take to a higher level" the efforts led previously by General Anthony Zinni.

Before President Bush made his speech, General Powell telephoned Mr Sharon to tell him what to expect. Next week will show whether he listened.