In Israel and the Occupied Territories, President Bush is in the West Bank today for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Bush met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday, the first of his three-day trip. Speaking alongside Olmert in Jerusalem, Bush said he will push Israel to remove scattered settlement outposts but reiterated his endorsement of Israel’s plan to retain its large West Bank settlement blocs.

President Bush: “He understands he has an obligation to protect Israel. He also understands that he’s got to be circumspect — reasonable about how he does it, so that innocent people don’t suffer. He just gave you the answer on the settlements. In terms of outposts, yeah, they ought to go. Look, I mean, we’ve been talking about it for four years. The agreement was — get rid of outposts, illegal outposts, and they ought to go.”

Palestinian negotiators have called the settlement blocs the main obstacle to peace.