President George W. Bush will visit a U.S. military camp in Kuwait on Saturday, on a tour of five allied Arab states he hopes will aid the fragile Israeli-Palestinian peace process and help contain Iran.
Bush arrived in Kuwait on Friday evening after wrapping up his first presidential visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank, emboldened enough to have predicted a peace treaty within a year but with no major breakthroughs for his efforts.
He had dinner with Kuwait's ruler, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who thanked Bush for his efforts to make progress on issues crucial to the Middle East.
On Saturday, Bush will meet his top officials in Iraq, General David Petraeus and ambassador Ryan Crocker, at Camp Irfjan in Kuwait, where thousands of American troops are based.
The president will also meet Kuwaiti women activists in a show of support for democratisation in their conservative Muslim country, which has allowed female suffrage in recent years.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday Gulf talks would turn to "the threats that we've seen in the Gulf, the problem of extremism, whether it be extremism from al Qaeda, Sunni extremism, or whether it be Iran and its tentacles, like Hezbollah and the part of Hamas that Iran supports".
Gulf states have been battling al Qaeda and are concerned about crises in Lebanon and Iraq, as well as the standoff over Iran's nuclear programme.
Kuwaiti media said the emir and other officials would tell Bush of their concerns that a U.S. strike on nearby Iran would destabilise the Gulf, which is crucial to world oil supplies.
Bush is likely to hear similar messages from other Gulf Arab leaders who want to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions peacefully.
