With pressure rising in the US and abroad for US President George W. Bush to lay out his Middle East policy, his window for doing so before a summit of major nations this week is narrowing.
US officials said aides proposed that Bush deliver his address yesterday afternoon, but the president had not made a final decision as of late Sunday.
The president plans to leave early this afternoon for a major-nation summit in Canada -- where leaders are seen as eager for a US policy declaration.
US Senator John Kerry, a possible 2004 presidential candidate, urged the Bush administration on Sunday to quickly clarify policy. "There is no continuity; there is no fundamental plan," Kerry said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press.
"They've got to announce a vision. They've got to put something on the table," he said.
Bush aides said the president met with advisers on the issue on Saturday.
"We haven't ruled anything out in terms of timing," US National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Bush was to travel to Newark, New Jersey yesterday morning, to tour the Port Elizabeth marine terminal complex and pitch his proposal for a new Cabinet Department of Homeland Security. US officials have said bolstering security at US ports is essential to protecting against terrorism.
There may also be an opportunity in which the president could present his views before leaving for Canada, aides said.
Bush's speech on the Middle East is expected to call for the early creation of a Palestinian state with provisional borders and a formation of a state with permanent borders within three years, providing that Palestinians end violence and reform their institutions.
He also was expected to ask Israel to halt incursions into Palestinian areas, freeze settlement activity and be willing to enter political negotiations with the Palestinians.
There had been a possibility Bush would deliver the speech last Tuesday, but that was ruled out the day before, aides said. Subsequent suicide bombing attacks made the atmosphere unsuitable for an address, aides said. Bush was likely to await a period of calm, one aide said.
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