World in brief

Report: U.S. may back Israeli pullout

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration, signaling a major shift of policy on the Middle East, has indicated that it may support Israel's new proposal for a unilateral withdrawal from parts of Gaza and the West Bank, the New York Times reports, quoting unnamed administration and Israeli officials.

The newspaper quoted an unnamed senior U.S. official as saying that the administration is taking a close look at the policy, and that the president will send three senior aides to Israel next week to get questions answered before the proposal is endorsed. But administration and Israeli officials say they expect a favorable U.S. response.

In the past, the administration has maintained that peace can be achieved in the Middle East only by reciprocal concessions agreed upon in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Embracing Sharon's plan would depart from that principle by accepting the idea that such negotiations are not possible, at least for now.

HEARING ON WALL: Israeli officials decided Thursday not to attend oral arguments at the International Court of Justice on the legality of Israel's hotly contested West Bank barrier. But supporters of the barricade are planning a media blitz in The Hague, the Dutch city where the trial begins Feb. 23.

A centerpiece of the public relations campaign will be the charred, mangled skeleton of the bus in which 11 Jerusalemites were killed and 50 wounded by a suicide bomber Jan. 29.

WASHINGTON - Six members of the House Intelligence Committee are scheduled to meet in Libya today with Col. Moammar Gadhafi and other top Libyan officials, a senior lawmaker said on Thursday.

The meeting with Gadhafi will be the second between a U.S. congressional delegation and the Libyan leader since Libya agreed to work with British and U.S. officials to dismantle its once-secret chemical and biological weapons program. The members of the House panel are hoping to use that opening to gauge the accuracy of earlier U.S. intelligence about Libya.

"We now have a way to compare what we thought we knew with what we will learn on the ground," Rep. Jane Harman of California, the top Democrat on the panel, said in a telephone interview before the bipartisan group left Washington on Thursday. The trip had not been announced in advance at Libya's request.

VENEZUELA RECALL: A top Venezuelan election official said Thursday that authorities have found signs of possible fraud in a petition for a recall referendum against President Hugo Chavez and that they may need several more weeks to decide its validity.

MEXICO FIRST LADY: President Vicente Fox rallied to the defense of first lady Marta Sahagun on Thursday after Congress ordered an audit of a charity she runs, and legislators proposed a law that would prevent her from running for the presidency in 2006.

World and national headlines

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact the Times | Privacy Policy Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright