ISRAELI and Palestinian leaders promised dramatic steps yesterday to end the past three years of mutual slaughter and resolve half a century of relentless conflict.

Urged on by President Bush, Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas both pledged support for the latest Middle East peace plan and offered concessions that enraged many of their own people.

At the end of a momentous three-way summit, Mr Abbas, the Palestinian Prime Minister, stunned militants by renouncing all violence against Israel and calling for an immediate end to suicide bombings.

“The armed intifada must end,” he declared in a reference to the 32-month uprising against the Jewish state that has left more than 3,250 dead.

Mr Abbas, breaking Yassir Arafat’s long grip on the Palestinian leadership, also vowed to help to end thousands of years of Jewish hardship. “We do not ignore the suffering of the Jews throughout history. It’s time to bring all this suffering to an end,” he said.

Mr Sharon emerged from the talks in the King of Jordan’s summer palace to announce that Israel would begin dismantling its illegal outposts in the West Bank immediately, and to declare his “strong support” for a two-state solution to the conflict.

For Mr Bush, the minutely choreographed summit offered the first evidence that the war on Iraq could bring benefits to the entire Middle East. “Some amazing things were said,” he said afterwards.

But the leaders’ statements triggered immediate protests in both Israel and the West Bank, stark reminders that implementing the “road map” to peace remains fraught. The Palestinian militant groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine all flatly declared that they would not end the violence. “We will never be ready to lay down arms until the liberation of the last centimetre of land of Palestine,” Hamas said.

In Jerusalem, at least 10,000 settlers staged a protest rally, denouncing Mr Sharon’s pledge as a “humiliating surrender to Palestinian terror”.

And despite the summit’s apparent success, officials from all sides trod cautiously. Dore Gold, Mr Sharon’s adviser, said the Israeli mood was one of cautious optimisim. But Raanan Gissin, another Sharon adviser, said that one suicide bomb could condemn the road map before it was properly under way.

Mr Bush, on his first Middle East peace mission, emphasised his personal commitment to the process, saying that “no leader of conscience can accept more months and years of killing, humiliation and mourning”. In doing so, he was keeping his promise to Tony Blair to address the root cause of Middle East terrorism once the Iraq war was over, but much will now depend on his willingness to pressure Mr Sharon. Equally crucial and uncertain will be Mr Abbas’s ability to end Palestinian violence.

Yesterday he spoke of a “good beginning” and said he expected Mr Sharon to dismantle Israeli outposts: “He said he would dismantle them. We now expect him to dismantle them.”

The three leaders’ pledges fulfilled the key initial demands of the road map, which envisages a Palestinian state by 2005. But their statements skirted fundamental issues such as the status of Jerusalem, authorised Jewish settlements on the West Bank, and the return of Palestinian refugees. Both unequivocally recognised the other’s right to exist as a state and Mr Sharon went further, saying: “It is in Israel’s interest not to govern the Palestinians, but for the Palestinians to govern themselves in their own state.”

Mr Sharon also conceded that for a Palestinian state to be realistic, Israel would have to make substantial withdrawals. A day after Mr Bush demanded Israel deliver the Palestinians broad tracts of the West Bank, uninterrupted by settlements, roadblocks and outposts, Mr Sharon said: “We understand the importance of territorial contiguity in the West Bank for a viable Palestinian state.”

Mr Sharon also promised to try to restore normal Palestinian life and to rebuild trust as the Palestinian Authority moved to suppress terror.

In return, Mr Abbas said that he would do all in his power to prevent suicide bombers derailing the process. “Our national future is at stake and no one will be allowed to jeopardise it.”

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