Colin Powell

The secretary met King Mohammed almost immediately on arrival here after an all-night flight from Washington. Later in Casablanca he is to see Crown Prince Abdullah, who is vacationing in Morocco.

 Mr. Powell hopes the peace overture of the Saudi Crown Prince, offering Israel Arab-wide recognition if it withdraws from occupied land, can be the basis for a renewed regional peace process. 

But an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire is his immediate objective. The secretary wants Saudi Arabia and other U.S. Arab allies to exert more pressure on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to curb anti-Israeli violence - especially the wave of suicide bombings that sparked Israel's military drive in the West Bank.

 In a pre-departure interview with the NBC television network, Mr. Powell said moderate Arab states cannot sit on the sidelines if there is to be an end to the current bloodshed. "Part of my mission, the reason I'm going to consult with our Arab friends before going into Jerusalem, is to reinforce to them that they have a role to play," he said. "They have to do much more in the future with respect to encouraging Palestinian leaders to take more responsible action to bring this kind of violence under control. To speak of peace, not incite people to violence. They have a role to play, and I want to underscore the role to them."

 The secretary sees Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo Tuesday, before going to Madrid for Middle East meetings with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the European Union's chief diplomat, Javier Solana, among others.

 Mr. Powell, who is pressing for an immediate end to the Israeli incursion in the West Bank, is not due in Jerusalem until Friday but is expected to have at least three days of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. He says he will meet Mr. Arafat if the circumstances permit. 

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