Sharon, Bush divided over Israeli security fence

On the eve of Sharon's eighth prime ministerial visit to the White House, senior Israeli officials said he would weigh Bush's comments on the issue seriously and noted the barrier's final course on land Palestinians want for a state has not been set.

"There is no wall between Sharon and Bush," one of the officials said about their relationship, signaling confidence any rough edges could be smoothed over.

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Sharon enters the talks with a goodwill pledge to release 540 Palestinian prisoners, including 210 Islamic militants Israel had refused to free, in a bid to bolster Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and a US-backed peace "road map."

The plan is intended to end violence linked to a 34-month-old Palestinian uprising for independence and establish a Palestinian state by 2005.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan welcomed the Israeli decision to release prisoners, saying such steps "help facilitate progress toward peace." But Palestinians seek freedom for all 6,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

In another gesture before Sharon's visit, troops removed checkpoints near the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Hebron, opening the road to more than 100 villages for the first time since the uprising began.

On Friday, Bush expressed concern over the fence, which he called "a problem," after talks with Abbas at the White House that appeared to put the moderate leader on equal footing in Washington with Sharon.

"It is very difficult to develop confidence between the Palestinians and Israel with a wall snaking through the West Bank," Bush said, using terms that Israeli officials bridled at privately.

Meanwhile, Israel's foreign minister urged Palestinians to crack down on militants after a soldier's body was found in northern Israel on Monday, although there was no claim of responsibility from any militant group.

The death threatened a relative calm that has prevailed in the month since Palestinian militants declared a cease-fire vital to a US-backed peace plan that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will discuss with President Bush on Tuesday.

Bedouin trackers and police found the 20-year-old soldier's body in an olive grove as Sharon began a US visit with Bush, who has said Israel's construction of a West Bank security fence could pose a problem in implementing the peace "road map."