Palestinian PM scraps tour, Bush may visit Mideast

Jerusalem (Agencies): Israeli tanks forced the Palestinian prime minister to scrap a tour in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday amid reports that U.S. President George W. Bush may visit the Middle East to try to rescue a peace plan.

The cancellation of the trip to Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza was another setback to hopes that had been lifted by a New York Times report Bush may take a more direct role in pushing a peace "road map" threatened by a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings.

Fifteen tanks took up positions just inside Beit Hanoun and troops put up razor wire with a sign saying "Security zone. no entrance" just before Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen, was due to arrive.

Three army bulldozers dug up earth nearby.

"Abu Mazen has canceled the visit because of the Israeli tank raid in Beit Hanoun which has blocked the town entrance and the razing of land in Beit Hanoun this morning," said Sufian Abu Zaida, a Palestinian Authority official.

The tanks would have provided a humiliating backdrop forAbbas's tour, during which he had planned to talk to residents and inspect damage after an army raid intended to halt rocket attacks from the town into nearby southern Israel.

"Israel must cease its escalations (of violence) and invasions of Palestinian areas because these actions only feed the cycle of violence and deepen hatred between the two peoples," Abbas said in a statement.

Tanks returned to the edge of Beit Hanoun hours after pulling out on Tuesday. The withdrawal had raised hopes of an initial step in implementing the peace plan drawn up by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia.

Beit Hanoun is in a border area that Israel said it wanted to hand over to Palestinian security control as a proving ground for Abbas's commitment to the road map and its requirement to curb violence by militants.

The latest spate of bombings by Palestinian militants has dimmed hopes for the plan but Bush called Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday to try to salvage it.

The New York Times reported that Bush was considering making his first trip to the Middle East as president in the next few weeks. A visit to Israel is unlikely, it said. citing unnamed administration officials.

Officials told the Times that Bush could meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Kuwait or Qatar following a meeting he is due to attend later this month in the French Alps.

Despite this, the Times said U.S. administration officials were divided over whether Bush should be more involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.