By Anshel Pfeffer

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has failed to get support from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for his "realignment" plan during their Sunday meeting in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm e-Sheikh.

Although Olmert lost very little time in making his second diplomatic pilgrimage to introduce his plan after meeting with US President George W. Bush at the White House on May 23, the result of his meeting with Mubarak on Sunday was still hard to satisfy him, said political observers.

Olmert, who became Israeli prime minister on May 4, has been devoted to push his "realignment" plan or convergency plan, which is designed to evacuate about 70,000 Jewish settlements from parts of the West Bank and unilaterally fix Israel's final borders by 2010.

As he is not as popular as his predecessor Ariel Sharon within Israel, he is very eager to get international support for his unilateral plan, especially after Bush gave a vague reply to his plan by only saying that it is "interesting".

However, Mubarak, as head of a regional weight, did not show much flexible either on his long-term opposition to unilateral act of Israel, insisting that only direct talks with the Palestinians could help reach peace agreement.

Mubarak reiterated at the Sharm e-Sheikh summit that "there have to be direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in order to reach a peace agreement. That is the main mission."

But he also agreed that there should be "a different discussion if we are not successful in that", which was comprehended by Israeli side as a kind of concession.

Olmert's advisors considered the "concession" as a success achieved in the summit, despite that Mubarak has been holding his tongue on Olmert's plan.

However, Mubarak's silence on Israel's unilateral plan was apprehended by Olmert's advisors as an attitude of "not rejected", regardless of the fact that Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abel Gheit told reporters clearly that "Egypt at this stage is against any unilateral moves by Israel."

"I don't know of any state in the world that decides its borders unilaterally without talking to the other side," Gheit asserted.

Ignoring all of these, Olmert had to commit himself to a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a step he has refrained from taking since he became acting prime minister five months ago, as a kind of return to Egyptian "concession".

In addition, he had to reiterate that "Israel is committed to the roadmap plan and to promoting the bilateral track."

This commitment runs to contrary to Israel's policy considering Abbas as an ineffective partner over the past year.

He also promised at the summit to allocate 50 million Shekels (US$11 million) for medical aid to the Palestinians and ensure a unblocked way for aid transmission, despite his initial opposition to the proposals of his Defense Minister Amir Peretz to transfer humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.

As for his avoided "realignment" plan, Olmert only said after returning back to Jerusalem from the Sharm e-Sheikh meeting that " the president (Mubarak) knows what other thoughts I have, but at the moment we are trying to find a way to get to negotiations."

The Israeli prime minister cherished his fruit from the meeting with Mubarak by saying that Mubarak had not rebuffed him or his plan, although the Egyptian president did not give him any real support either.

(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2006)