Roadmap not abandoned yet: Sharon to US

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon assured US envoys on Thursday that Israel had not abandoned a US-backed peace ‘‘roadmap’’, b...

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon assured US envoys on Thursday that Israel had not abandoned a US-backed peace ‘‘roadmap’’, but said he would prepare go-it-alone moves in case the plan failed.

Earlier, diplomatic sources said the three envoys — Elliot Abrams and Stephen Hadley, both national security advisers to Bush, and State Department official William Burns — intended to urge Sharon to stick as closely as possible to the roadmap.

Sharon’s office said the three-hour meeting was held in ‘‘a very good atmosphere’’. A US official called the session productive but declined to give more details. The envoys also met Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat and Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie’s chief of staff at the US consulate in east Jerusalem.

Political sources close to Sharon said he wanted to secure another White House meeting with Bush and allay US concerns over Israel’s construction of a barrier in the West Bank. —(Reuters)

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