Powell will meet Arafat 'if circumstances permit'

Powell said he talks with Arafat regularly and has met with him at least three times in the past year.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday he will meet face-to-face with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat later this week "if circumstances permit," calling on Arafat to denounce the violence that has engulfed the Middle East.

Powell made his comments hours before his departure from Washington. After stops in Morocco, Egypt, Spain and Jordan, he will arrive in Israel late in the week to try to broker a cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians.

The secretary, who has been critical of Arafat's efforts to crack down on Palestinian-based terrorism, said he "look[s] forward to meeting" the Palestinian leader if access, security and "other circumstances" can be ironed out.

"I hope ... I will be able to rally the Arab nations, the European Union, the United Nations and others around the proposition that we need to get to a cease-fire and get to a political discussion as soon as possible," Powell said of his mission on NBC's Meet the Press.

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"I would hope that ... when I finally get to Jerusalem, we may be in a position where the level of [violence] will have dropped to a point where the two sides can begin talking again."

The Israeli military began incursions into the West Bank and Gaza last week in response to a series of suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians, including one on Passover that killed 27 people in the northern Israeli port city of Netanya.

On Saturday, President Bush urged Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territories "without delay" -- some of his strongest words directed at the longtime American ally since he took office.

"Without delay means without delay; it means now," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on CNN's Late Edition. "Obviously, the withdrawal has to be orderly. But the president needs to see results."

A day after telling Bush he would "expedite" the Israeli offensive in the West Bank, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Sunday his army's operations were "decisive" to Israel's hopes of living in peace and mentioned no timetable for withdrawal.

Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, criticized U.S. policy in the region as one-sided and ineffectual.

"President Bush has been taking a cost-free role," he said. "It doesn't cost him anything to slug the Palestinians."

Erakat also slammed Washington for not sending Powell directly to the Middle East -- "where every hour could be the difference [in] saving a Palestinian's life or an Israeli's life" -- and not promising that he would meet Arafat.

"It's absolutely unacceptable to see President Bush try to delegitimize (Palestinian Authority) President Arafat," Erakat said. "Arafat is our president, and this should be respected."