Sharon stroke leaves US with hard choices

They said the absence of Sharon from the political scene left Washington with no Israeli partner of his clout and standing to push through deals with the Palestinians and clouded the future of US-backed peace efforts.

Some experts also questioned whether the administration of President George W. Bush would maintain its high-profile investment in the search for peace if continuing political turmoil made substantive gains doubtful.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed confidence Thursday the Israeli people would remain committed to the peace process advanced most notably by Sharon's decision to evacuate the Gaza Strip in September.

"I do believe that the desire for peace, the desire for a stable relationship between the Israelis and the Palestinians, is one that runs wide and deep in Israeli society," she told a breakfast meeting with reporters.

But analysts such as Tamara Wittes, a Middle East watcher for the Brookings Institution, said such sentiment still required leadership and there was no obvious replacement for Sharon and his close ties to Bush.

"It's not at all clear who the Israeli political leader is who ... has the trust of the Israeli public to take what would be bold and probably divisive and painful steps in order to advance the peace process," Wittes said.

Acting prime minister Ehud Olmert is a close ally of Sharon and has stood by him through the difficult Gaza operation as well as his boss's move to found a new centrist party.

But US officials were still feeling their way with Olmert, a former Jerusalem mayor whom State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said was "well known, well respected to members of this administration."

Officials said Thursday Rice had spoken more than once to Sharon's top aide Dov Weisglas since the crisis broke but was still trying to organise a phone conversation with Olmert.

The sharp deterioriation in Sharon's health came at the most delicate of moments in the region, with the Palestinians facing crucial parliamentary elections on January 25 and the Israelis on March 28.

It also came with the United States struggling to parlay the Gaza handover, which it once billed as a milestone, into renewed efforts to implement a peace "roadmap" aimed at creation of an independent Palestinian state.

The Americans are even having trouble making stick an agreement on freedom of movement for Palestinians that Rice brokered in November after marathon talks in Jerusalem.