Bush, Abdullah to meet in New York in September

In its Tuesday's issue, the Lebanese daily Assafir said quoting well-informed American sources that the Saudi crown prince Abdullah will in the second half of September pay an official visit to the USA in order to hold talks with the US President George Bush. This visit will be the second of its kind this year following their talks in April in Texas.

The American sources said that the discussions about this visit had started actually between the two sides, while well-informed Arab diplomatic sources said that the Saudi ambassador in Washington Prince Bandar Bin Sultan would have delivered the US President George Bush a message from the Saudi crown prince Abdullah yesterday in his private farm in Crowford, Texas where he is spending his summer vacation, added that the message includes the views of the crown prince on bilateral relations after these relations have been recently exposed to unprecedented pressures and how this critical phase can be overcome.

The diplomatic sources said that the annual meetings of the UN which will start in the second half of September might be the framework in which Bush's meetings with Abdullah will be made. The sources added that the Saudi crown prince's stop in Washington is not ruled out, though the Saudis prefer New York.

Assafir said that Bandar's meeting with the US president in Crowford falls in the context of the importance the two sides pin on the need of containing the tension in the relations between Washington and Riyadh in the few past months and weeks because of differences on how to fight terrorism, dealing with Iraq and means of containing the Palestinian - Israeli conflict.

The spokesman for the White House said that the discussions will deal with various issues, including attaining a progress in the peace process and bilateral relations.