The US president, George Bush, arrived in Israel yesterday to try to give fresh impetus to the stalled Middle East peace process, but the papers appear pessimistic about his chances.
"The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, last night refused to rule out further settlement building in East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank, highlighting the deep gulf between Israel and the Palestinians," says the Guardian.
The Independent reports that Olmert's defiance came despite Bush "using some of his strongest language yet in demanding the dismantling of separate settlement outposts".
The Telegraph says the US president declared that he was "very hopeful" on his arrival, but "disagreements meant officials were unable to even organise a trilateral meeting between Mr Bush, Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Palestinian leader".
Richard Beeston, writing in the Times, urges Bush to "remember the experience of his predecessor, Bill Clinton".
"He [Clinton] tried and failed to clinch a peace deal in the dying days of his administration," he says. "Instead of an historic agreement at Camp David, the region was left with another conflict at the cost of thousands of lives."
This is an edited extract from the Wrap, our daily digest of the papers.
