HIGHLIGHTS: Bush Cites Recent Violence for Reluctance to Put Timetable on Palestinian Statehood||Mubarak Warns Violence Will Continue Indefinitely Unless Palestinian Aspirations for Sovereignty are Met||Bush & Mubarak Also Differed Over Arafat's Future Role in the Peace Process|| STORY: As violence flared anew in the Middle East, President Bush said on Saturday he was not ready to set a timetable to establish a Palestinian state despite personal prodding from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. (Read photo caption)

Mubarak had gone to Camp David, the presidential retreat, hoping to persuade Bush to support declaring the state of Palestine early next year, before Bush's meeting on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the White House. But Bush rebuffed him.

"We're not ready to lay down a specific calendar, except for the fact that we've got to get started quickly, soon, so that we can seize the moment," Bush told a news conference with Mubarak at the retreat in Maryland's mountains where Egypt and Israel reached a peace agreement nearly a quarter century ago.

The meeting was the latest round in international diplomacy aimed at reviving the Middle East peace process and halting Palestinian bombings and Israeli retaliatory raids that have claimed nearly 1,900 lives since September 2000.

Even as U.S. peace efforts intensified, Palestinians and Israelis traded strikes on Saturday that left at least nine people dead.

OMINOUS WARNING

At Camp David, Mubarak pressed Bush into calling for a Palestinian state ahead of negotiations on the new state's final borders.

In an ominous warning, Mubarak told Bush the violence "will continue forever" unless the Palestinian people "feel that there is hope for peace and there is something to show that peace is coming."

The leaders also differed on how to deal with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. The Bush administration has been reaching out to other Palestinians as it seeks to coax the Palestinian Authority to reform, including its splintered security force, to create the conditions for peace negotiations.

"Look, we should give this man a chance," Mubarak said of Arafat. "Such a chance will prove that he is going to deliver or not. If he's going to deliver, I think everybody will support him. If he's not going to deliver, his people will tell him that."

Bush said Mubarak had an "interesting point of view" about Arafat, but added there was "plenty of talent" elsewhere among the Palestinians that would emerge "if we develop the institutions necessary for the development of a state."

For weeks, the Bush administration has been debating a shift in policy that would offer a timetable for negotiating a final settlement.

While Bush made clear he was not ready at this time, the president has not ruled out backing an initiative like Mubarak's down the road.

On Monday, Bush will meet with Sharon, who opposes the Egyptian proposal.

Bush said the consultations he was undertaking were to determine what was feasible in terms of a timetable.

"Here's the timetable I have in mind," Bush said.

"We need to start immediately in building the institutions necessary for the emergence of a Palestinian state, which on the one hand will give hope to the Palestinian people, and on the other hand will say to the world, including the neighborhood, that there is a chance ... to live in peace, to defeat terror," Bush added.

The United States wants to contain the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which it sees as an obstacle to rallying Arab support for its declared war on terror and possible military action against Iraq.

INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS CONTINUE

Adding to international efforts, European Union officials and Japan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yoriko Kawaguchi, met Palestinian officials on Saturday before talks in coming days with Israeli leaders.

But Wednesday's bloodshed derailed one peace mission, as U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said on Saturday in Chicago that he postponed a trip to the Middle East because of the renewed violence. He had planned to meet with Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in a trip set to start this weekend, and said he hoped to reschedule the trip.

PHOTO CAPTION

As President Bush, looks on, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, right, makes his statement to reporters Saturday, June 8, 2002, at Camp David, Md. during a news conference. (AP Photo/Kenneth Lambert)
- Jun 08 3:03 PM ET