In a meeting with President Bush, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia saidthat the United States must temper its support with Israel.

Otherwise, there may be repercussions throughout the Arab world.

The Crown Prince informed President Bush that if the United States does notdo more to stop Israeli incursions into Palestinians areas, the United Stateswould continue to loose credibility and the region’s instability will increase.

After the meeting, however, President Bush said that the meeting helped tocreate a strong personal bond between himself and Crown Prince Abdullah.

Both Mr. Bush and Mr. Jubeir said that the crown prince did not use the withdrawof oil from the United States as a way to put pressure on the United States.Saudi Arabia is America’s second largest foreign supplier of oil with 8.5 percentof the oil it consumes coming from Saudi Arabia.

Saudi officials denied earlier suggestions that may have been made by the royalfamily, stating that the United States must leave strategic bases in Saudi Arabiaif the administration refuses to rein in Mr. Sharon.

At the meeting, however, Bush tried to reassure the crown prince that he wascounting on Mr. Sharon to pull out his troops from Palestinian areas and thathe is trying to work towards peace.

The president and the prince also discussed a potential international peaceconference. However, this discussion did not result in any final conclusionsbeing made. The Saudis are skeptical about an international peace conferenceespecially because of Yasser Arafat’s isolation by the Israeli. They feel thatthis will not be a peace conference if Sharon gets to decide who can and cannot attend a peace conference.

The two also discussed Saddam Hussein and his efforts to obtain weapons ofmass destruction.

After the meeting, the Saudis had objected to the U.S. characterization ofa peace initiative proposed by the Crown in March. The United States emphasizedthat Israel should be recognized without the requirement of Israel resumingpre-1967 borders.