Mubarak attacks US Mid-East policy

Mubarak the US must work to calm the tension

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has criticised the new American policy in the Middle East in an interview timed with his arrival in Washington to meet President George W Bush.

The new administration may not have a picture of what's going on

Hosni Mubarak

The comments foreshadow what are expected to be some robust exchanges at the White House between the new US administration and one of his firmest Arab allies.

Mr Bush has repeatedly stated that his administration will not "force peace" in the Middle East, signalling a departure from the aggressive pursuit of a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians undertaken by his predecessor, Bill Clinton.

Mubarak hopes to change Bush's stance

"It requires two willing parties to come to the table to enact a peace treaty that will last," Mr Bush said on Thursday. "And this administration won't try to force peace on the parties."

But as Mr Mubarak's plane touched down at Andrews Air Force Base, Newsweek magazine released an interview in which the Egyptian leader chastised the US administration for taking a hands-off approach.

Escalating violence

"The new administration may not have a picture of what's going on," Mr Mubarak told the US weekly, which made an advance copy of its interview, on sale from Monday, available to the media on Saturday.

"I'm going to tell them what I feel," he added.

Arabs fear Mr Bush sees eye-to-eye only with Israel's leader

Mr Mubarak went on to say that the United States "cannot just take its hands off" the situation in the Middle East amid escalating violence.

"It has to work to narrow the gap between the Palestinians and the Israelis," he pointed out.

UN veto

The Egyptian president also criticised America's decision to veto a UN Security Council resolution calling for deployment of UN observers in the West Bank and Gaza.

"I sent the United States a message: 'Please don't veto now,' " Mr Mubarak said. "They did, and the Arab delegations changed resolutions. We couldn't prevent it."

He also took the Bush administration to task for its Iraq policy, which involves air strikes.

"The more you bomb him, the stronger he gets," said Mr Mubarak, speaking of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, an avowed foe of the United States.