(16 May 2008) SHOTLIST
1. US President George W. Bush and wife, Laura Bush walking in Bible Lands museum
2. Bush talking to museum guide
3. Various of George and Laura Bush with guide
4. George and Laura Bush walking outside museum
5. Various of George and Laura Bush talking to young Israelis
STORYLINE
US President George W.Bush and wife Laura ended their celebrate-and-be-celebrated Israel stay on Friday with a visit to Jerusalem's Bible Lands Museum.
That was followed with talks in the museum's garden with a group of Israeli youth leaders.
It was the last stop of a two-day visit to Israel to mark its 60th anniversary.
The young people who spoke to the president and first lady Laura Bush before the media were ushered out seemed eager for an end to the long fighting between Israel and the Palestinians.
But Bush's second trip to Israel in four months ended without progress.
The two sides have been negotiating since December, but nothing visible has emerged from the secretive process.
Both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders are weak among their own constituencies and fresh violence from the Gaza Strip and settlement activity by Israelis are diminishing an already precious supply of trust.
But the US president did no negotiating on this visit.
In a much-anticipated Knesset speech on Thursday, he only gently urged Middle East leaders to "make the hard choices necessary," but made no mention of concrete steps.
George and Laura Bush were set to depart for Saudi Arabia, to spend a little less than a day with King Abdullah at his desert horse farm outside Riyadh.
Bush and Abdullah were to talk over three tea services, two meals and a meeting, most of their time out of public view.
He was then due to spend Saturday afternoon and Sunday in Egypt before returning to Washington.
The White House said on Thursday that the president's Saudi visit, intended in part to celebrate 75 years of formal US-Saudi relations, would mark the conclusion of several agreements, laying out intentions to cooperate on nuclear energy, infrastructure protection and non-proliferation.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
