In a sweeping victory for right-wing hawks in his administration, US President George W Bush has called for a ''new and different Palestinian leadership'' dedicated to ending attacks on Israel as a precondition for the creation of a Palestinian state.

The long-awaited speech late Monday had been put off twice in the previous ten days due to Palestinian suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. It marked an explicit repudiation of the leadership of Palestinian Authority President Yassir Arafat (although Bush never spoke his name) and, implicitly, of the eight-year-old Oslo peace process.

Those have been key goals of both Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who met Bush here earlier this month, and of a group of pro-Likud hawks in the offices of Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Bush said Washington, the European Union, and other members of the international community will help organise and monitor local elections in the West Bank and Gaza by the end of the year, ''with national elections to follow.''

''I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror,'' he declared. ''When the Palestinian people have new leaders, new institutions, and new security arrangements with their neighbours, the United States of America will support the creation of a Palestinian state.''

If the Palestinians cooperate fully, he said, the United States would recognise a provisional state in 18 months, he said. A final peace agreement with Israel — covering the fate of Palestinian refugees, the final status of Jerusalem, and final borders both countries — should be achieved within three years, he said.

Security demands

But, he suggested, Palestinian failure to satisfy Israeli security demands could stall progress toward that end indefinitely. Moreover, he indicated that Israel should only have to withdraw from Palestinian territory and stop settlement activity ''as we make progress towards security.''

He also called for other Arab states to cease all support for ''terrorist groups seeking the destruction of Israel, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and (Lebanon's) Hezbollah.''

In that connection, he added that ''Syria must choose the right side in the war on terror by closing terrorist camps and expelling terrorist organisations.''

On his recent trip here, Sharon reportedly stressed what Israeli officials called a growing threat from Damascus-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in an effort to ascertain how Washington might react to an Israeli attack on Syrian targets.

His singling out of Syria was seen as one more indication that Bush has tilted US policy toward the Israel-Palestinian conflict toward the view repeatedly expressed by Sharon's right-wing Likud party and its sympathisers here that Israel's struggle against its Arab enemies is part of the larger US war against terrorism.

Since immediately after the attacks on New York and the Pentagon, right-wing groups, such as the Project for a New American Century and the Center for Security Policy, have repeatedly called for Washington to cut ties to the Palestinian Authority and Arafat as part of Bush's war on terrorism that should also include pressure on Hezbollah, Syria, Iran, and the ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Unaccountable few

''I'm surprised he didn't begin his speech with 'Shalom','' the standard Israeli greeting, said one Arab journalist here after Bush's appearance in the White House Rose Garden. ''I'm surprised he didn't read it in Hebrew.''

Indeed, Bush placed virtually all of the blame for the violence on the current Palestinian leadership. He accused it of corruption and concentrating power ''in the hands of an unaccountable few.'' But his harshest words were directed at its alleged support of terrorism.

''Today, Palestinian authorities are encouraging, not opposing, terrorism,'' he said. ''This is unacceptable.'' He said Washington and its allies will supervise efforts to ''rebuild and reform the Palestinian security services,'' an initiative already launched last month by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director George Tenet.

Palestinian leaders tried to put the best face on the speech by releasing a statement that Arafat ''welcomed'' Bush's remarks and ''looked forward'' to negotiations over how to accomplish its aims.

The statement did not address Bush's call for a new leadership, although Saeb Erekat, a close Arafat adviser, noted that Arafat was the Palestinians' ''directly elected leader in free and fair elections...and President Bush must respect the choice of the Palestinian people.''

Skepticism and concern

In addition to Arafat's fate, the notion of a provisional Palestinian state has already evoked skepticism and concern by Arab leaders who have expressed concern that the creation of a provisional state without the final resolution of other key issues, including final borders and Jerusalem's status to be decided in a peace agreement, would encourage Israeli stonewalling.

Other analysts said Bush's speech was deficient in details about what precisely the United States was willing to do to promote the plan. ''The real key is not what he says, but what the US is going to do now,'' said Judith Kipper, a Mideast specialist at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) here. ''What incentives is he going to offer Sharon to end settlements when they have refused to do so in the past?''

But Israeli officials and Sharon's strongest supporters here were jubilant. Dore Gold, a close Sharon adviser, said the speech was clear about Arafat's demise: ''you can't have a leadership tainted by terror,'' he told CNN.

''The President has once again shown incredible leadership,'' said the Republican Whip in the House of Representatives, Tom DeLay, who is likely to become Majority Leader if the Republicans retain their majority in that chamber next year. ''He's not going back to the old, failed (Oslo) peace process,'' said DeLay, one of the Christian Right's most fervent supporters of Likud.

An end to Arafat

''He called for an end to Arafat,'' enthused Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos, another staunch Israel supporter and ranking member of the House International Relations Committee.

''I was very concerned that the so-called doves in the State Department would win out (on the speech),'' said Christian Right televangelist Pat Robertson. He declared himself ''delighted'' by Bush's saying ''Yassir Arafat's got to go,'' and added in a CNN interview that other Arab states ''are going to come into line.''

Indeed, the speech appears to be a major setback for Secretary of State Colin Powell's efforts to move US policy toward a more even-handed position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Earlier this spring, he suggested holding a major international conference here to try to restore peace negotiations, a notion that went completely neglected in Bush's speech.

Also neglected was the peace initiative launched by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah who personally lobbied Bush at the latter's ranch last month although he did note that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory began in 1967 and that a final settlement of the conflict should be based on UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338. Abdullah's plan, endorsed by the Arab League in March, calls for a final peace agreement based on Israel's withdrawal to its pre-1967 borders in exchange for full, peaceful relations with all Arab states. — (IPS)