Bush blames Arafat for wrecking peace efforts

George Bush blamed Yasser Arafat for the stalled peace process yesterday, describing him as a "failed leader" who had sabotaged peace efforts made by the former Palestinian prime minister Abu Mazen.

President Bush, who reaffirmed his commitment to reaching a two-state solution, said Mr Mazen, also known as Mahmoud Abbas, had been "undercut by the old order at every turn".

"Hopefully, at some point in time, a leadership of the Palestinian Authority will emerge which will then commit itself 100 per cent to fighting off terror," Mr Bush told reporters at the Camp David presidential retreat, where he held talks with King Abdullah of Jordan.

"Mr Arafat has failed as a leader ... The people of the Palestinian territories must understand that if they want peace, they must have leadership which is absolutely 100 per cent committed to fighting off terror.

"I remain committed - solidly committed - to the vision of two states living side by side in peace and security. Yet that will only happen with new Palestinian leadership committed to fighting terror not compromised by terror."

Mr Bush's remarks came as Mr Arafat offered a new ceasefire in interviews from his headquarters in Ramallah. "Enough blood," he said, "enough of the destruction and of the daily suffering." He said Islamic Jihad was ready to stop its attacks and that he was negotiating a deal with Hamas.

Silvan Shalom, Israel's Foreign Minister, and Shaul Mofaz, the Defence Minister, rejected the offer, arguing that the Palestinians must first rein in the militants. Binyamin Netanyahu, the Finance Minister, suggested that Israel should consider the offer, if only to win time to complete its West Bank security fence.

Mr Arafat rejected any idea of dismantling the terrorist infrastructure. "This is not an infrastructure," he told the newspaper Yediot Aharonot.

Israeli troops killed Jihad Abu Shwairah, 34, a Hamas military leader, in a gun battle in Nusseirat refugee camp yesterday, the first attack by ground forces in Gaza since the Palestinians announced their aborted ceasefire at the end of June. Israel has killed 19 Hamas activists and bystanders in air strikes there since mid-August, when a suicide bomber killed 23 civilians on a Jerusalem bus.

An Israeli army spokesman said when soldiers surrounded Abu Shwairah's house, he opened fire, wounding two men. Adnan Abu Amer, a researcher for a Palestinian human rights group in Nusseirat, said other Palestinians joined the battle , wounding a third soldier. An Israeli helicopter later destroyed the house with three rockets.

On the West Bank, Israeli infantrymen backed by tanks entered the village of Tubas, near Nablus, and arrested a man and a woman they said were planning suicide bombings.