Abbas said that at Aqaba, Bush promised to speak with Sharon about the siege on Arafat. He said nobody can speak to or pressure Sharon except the Americans.

According to Abbas, immediately thereafter Bush said: "God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them."

In a Press Briefing by Ari Fleischer in the White House, Mr. Felischer answered a question about this.

Q Part of the same quote, Prime Minister Abbas suggested the President said that God spoke to him about al Qaeda and spoke to him about Saddam. Is that a stretch? Is there anything to that? How would you characterize that part of the --

MR. FLEISCHER: It's beyond a stretch. It's an invention. It was not said.

Q I was going to ask on that very same point. Just to be clear, to quote, as reported by Ha'aretz, is not true, didn't come up in the meeting?

MR. FLEISCHER: Hasn't become true since I just told Ken it wasn't. (Laughter.)