President Sends His Very Best

"I really, truly believe that we are as close as we have ever been to peace," she said.

Bush is to conclude her visit with a two-day stop in Egypt, where President Hosni Mubarak is promising free elections but imposing restrictions on who can run for office. Critics say the White House should do more to defend opposition groups and to pressure Mubarak to open up the elections and allow international monitors.

The first lady, who plans to spend much of her time with Suzanne Mubarak, the president's wife, said the White House is committed to strong monitors and open elections. "President Mubarak is very popular in Egypt, he's very well liked, and it's very important for him, as well as for the country, as well as an example for the rest of the countries in the broader Middle East, to show that Egypt can have free and fair elections," she said. Egypt is second only to Israel as a recipient of U.S. foreign aid.

The most recent proposal by Egypt's ruling party for this year's election would prevent a number of opposition groups from competing, including the largest, the Muslim Brotherhood. Under the rules, an independent candidate would need the signature of 250 current government officials, almost all of whom are members of Mubarak's party.

At the same time, there has been a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood. At least 400 of the group's 2,500 members have been arrested in recent weeks. "In a democracy, everybody has to participate or it won't work," Laura Bush said.

The White House has used a carrot-and-stick approach this past week, with President Bush inviting the Egyptian prime minister to the White House on Wednesday and later that night suggesting that trade with Egypt might be informally linked to election reforms.

Still, the first lady's visits to Cairo and Alexandria, where the former librarian is to visit one of the world's most famous libraries, are sure to be seen as a symbolic blessing of the Mubarak government.

More broadly, her mission is to help repair the U.S. image in Arab nations, which experts say remains damaged not only by the prisoner abuse scandal and the recent flap over the retracted Newsweek article but also by the Iraq war and images of an imperialist and religiously motivated United States trying to impose its views on the world.

President Bush has promised a more rigorous public relations defense by the U.S. government, but his key appointee in this area -- Karen P. Hughes, a longtime friend and communications adviser, who will handle Middle East outreach at the State Department -- has not started work yet. The Council on Foreign Relations said this week that current public diplomacy efforts are floundering.

Laura Bush counseled patience in grading the progress of democratic reforms in the Arab world, echoing the historical reminders the president uses to tell people of how long it took for true democracy to take hold in the United States.

"We started off with a perfect document," she said. "It took us almost 100 years after that to have abolition of slavery."

Baker reported from Washington.