Leaders Work Out Plan For End to Mideast Crisis

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Group of Eight Summit
President Bush and other world leaders put aside their differences Sunday in crafting a plan to stop the fighting in the Middle East, calling on Islamic militias to halt their rocket attacks on Israel and on Israeli forces to end their military response.

At the same time, it also insisted that Israel pull back and included demands that U.S. officials have not made, particularly the release of Palestinian officials. "It is also critical that Israel, while exercising the right to defend itself, be mindful of the strategic and humanitarian consequences of its actions," it said.

Still, the statement skipped around some of the most pointed language used by the leaders in recent days. While assailing "those that support" Hezbollah guerrillas, it did not identify them, despite U.S. pressure to name Iran and Syria. Chirac and Putin resisted that, with the Russian leader saying there was not enough evidence to assume their complicity. Neither did the statement use the word "disproportionate" to describe Israel's actions, as Chirac has, or the word "cease-fire" to describe the G-8 leaders' goal.

Each side insisted it meant those things anyway. At a news conference, Chirac said that the plan stated "clearly our determination to put an end to this escalation" and that it called for a "lasting cease-fire" in Lebanon and Gaza. He said the G-8 leaders "expressed our grave reservations as to the disproportionate nature of Israel's provoked response."

Burns, briefing reporters traveling with Bush, disputed Chirac's use of the word "disproportionate."

"That word's not used in the statement," he said. Nor was "cease-fire," even though it described the goal as "an immediate end to the current violence." The distinction, Burns said, is the "necessary precondition" for Israel standing down would be Hamas and Hezbollah backing down first. "It's not a cease-fire," Burns said. "There was no push for a cease-fire this weekend."

Chirac pushed for the idea of an international force, and the statement called on the U.N. Security Council to examine the possibility. Burns said that did not necessarily mean traditional peacekeeping troops, saying the language was deliberately vague to keep options open.

Although the summit has been essentially overtaken by the Middle East strife, Putin tried to keep attention on his chosen topics, particularly energy security.

But the list of priorities released by the leaders did little to address investor uncertainties about Russia's extensive oil and gas industries, which are increasingly coming under state control.

On one case often cited as an example of concern to foreign businesses, Putin was asked about William F. Browder, whose company is Russia's largest foreign institutional investor and who was denied entry back into the country last year. Putin said he did not know the reason behind the decision but said he imagined Browder must have violated the law.