Kelly Wallace: Pressure on Bush from both sides

CNN's Kelly Wallace

(CNN) -- CNN White House Correspondent Kelly Wallace talks to CNN anchor Kyra Phillips about the background to Saturday's talks at Camp David, Maryland, between President Bush and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

PHILLIPS: What is the White House saying is the goal of these talks?

WALLACE: The goal, Kyra, is to listen. President Bush saying he wants to hear what Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has to say but also, as we know, Monday he sits down with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The goal might be to listen, but also this administration is facing a lot of pressure to come up with some plan, or some framework, or some outline about how to move forward from here.

And we heard President Bush saying yesterday, that after these meetings he will go before the country in some way, shape or form and talk about his ideas about how to move forward.

PHILLIPS: So, Kelly, you said these two met back in March, I think is what you told me, what is going to be different between that meeting and this meeting? And is Mubarak going to put much more pressure on Bush to do something that he wants him to do?

WALLACE: Well, a big difference is that President Mubarak is coming here with some pressure. He's going to press Mr. Bush to set a timeline for negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and a timeline for the creation of a Palestinian state.

Mr Mubarak has been making the rounds around Washington, appearing on various television programs, saying that it's important ... the only way Mr Mubarak will say to bring an end to the suicide bombings is to give the Palestinian people some hope, and that is the creation of a Palestinian state at some point -- maybe next year, or a couple of years thereafter. U.S. officials refuse to rule out or rule in whether Mr. Bush will in fact propose a timeline, but clearly he'll face some pressure from Egyptian President Mubarak to put forward one soon.

PHILLIPS:: And Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon comes to Washington on Sunday. What will be the president's focus at this meeting?

WALLACE: This White House is facing pressure of another sort from the Israelis because the Israelis want much more of an incremental approach as opposed to putting together some detailed timeline for political discussions. They also have said that until the violence comes to an end they really don't believe there should be detailed political discussions about the creation of a Palestinian state.

So you'll get some pressure from the Israeli leader Mr. Sharon, also, not to negotiate with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. President Mubarak (however) is saying Mr Arafat must be dealt with. So again you're watching this White House kind of maneuver through.

As for where it comes out at the end my sources are telling me don't look for the President to put together a whole "game plan" here, more likely he'll define the rules of the game.