West Bank plan, Iran, top Olmert's U.S. agenda

WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was set to hold talks at the Pentagon and the White House today seeking during his first visit to Washington to coordinate policy on the Palestinians and the Iranian nuclear crisis.

Olmert's meeting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will provide an opportunity to exchange assessments about Tehran's uranium enrichment program, which both the United States and Israel fear could lead to a nuclear-armed Iran.

''I don't want to go into details,'' a senior Israeli official said about planned discussions on Iran. ''I can tell you that the coordination we had in the past is going to continue and probably improve.'' Israel, the only nuclear power in the W Asia has said it wants to take a back seat in international diplomatic efforts to resolve the Iranian crisis but views seriously Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's calls for its destruction.

Olmert, who took over from Ariel Sharon after the Israeli leader suffered an incapacitating stroke in January, had dinner yesteray with U S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to prepare for his first meeting with President George W Bush.

No major decisions are expected: Olmert's ''convergence'' proposal to reshape the Jewish settlement map in the occupied West Bank is still largely on the drawing board.

Senior U.S. officials said Bush will be hesitant to embrace Olmert's ideas until he is convinced that what he proposes will not prejudice the outcome of eventual final-status talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Under his West Bank plan, Olmert intends in the absence of a Palestinian peace partner to remove isolated Israeli settlements in the territory, bolster major enclaves Israel says it intends to keep forever and set a border by 2010.

Olmert has said he prefers a negotiated agreement with the Palestinians but peace hopes have dimmed since the Islamic militant group Hamas took power in March after crushing moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction in a January election.

Gun battles between the rival groups in Gaza have also clouded prospects for resuming peacemaking.

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