The Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the war in Iraq and Iran's nuclear issue will be the top priority of US President George W. Bush's foreign tasks during his second term as part of Washington's strategies of anti-terrorism and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

MODIFIED "ROAD MAP"

The four-year-long mass conflicts between Israel and Palestinians have brought huge losses to both sides, which called for a peaceful way out. The Middle East peace process arrived at new crossroads after the passing away of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and Bush's policy in his new term will hold key to the process.

"There is an opportunity at hand to work toward the development of a Palestinian state and peace in the Middle East," Bush said on Dec. 4. "This will be a priority of my administration," he added.

Bush and his ally Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon have long regarded Arafat as the "greatest obstruction to peace" and refused to negotiate with him, but now Arafat has gone and they lost the excuse for refusing negotiating with the Palestinian side.

Bush, shortly after Arafat's death, reiterated the US-proposed "road map", a peace plan launched in 2003 also with the participation of the United Nations, the European Union and Russia.

He promised to establish a Palestinian state within four years, but the date initially set by the "road map" was by 2005.

But Bush has given no sign of applying additional pressure to Israel so far. Instead, in early December during his tour to Canada, he stressed Palestine's reform and democracy as the core of the Israel-Palestine peace talks.

"Achieving peace in the Holy Land is not just a matter of pressuring one side or the other on the shape of a border or the site of a settlement," he said in Canada, noting "the heart of the matter" is a peaceful Palestinian government which is also Israel's true partner in peace.

Bush said the only way to achieve peace in the region is "the path of democracy and reform and the rule of law."

Bush's statement in Canada, as Washington Post commented, showed that he will exert more pressure on Palestine's political reform, not Israel's responsibility in the Middle East peace process, in his second term.

IRAQ'S ELECTIONS

Iraq is scheduled to hold its first elections on Jan. 30, 2005, since its former leader Saddam Hussein was toppled by US-led coalition forces in 2003. Should the elections proceed smoothly, it will be a significant achievement in Bush's Middle East strategy.

"A free Iraq will be a standing rebuke to radicalism and a model to reformers from Damascus to Tehran," Bush said in early December.

But the elections seemed to have run into a stonewall. Despite Bush and Iraqi interim government's perseverance for holding the elections as scheduled, US troops' November attack on insurgents in Falluja and other cities in central and northern Iraq for creating a safer election environment and Washington's recent decision to increase its military forces in Iraq, continued violence and opposite opinions have thrown a gloom over the elections.

About 19 months have passed by since the US-led coalition forces started the military operation in Iraq and only less than two months before the elections, the security situation in Iraq has shown no signs for improvement.

With more than 1,100 US soldiers already killed, frequent explosions, kidnappings of foreigners, and violence between US forces and local Muslims, Washington's efforts to reestablish order and security in the gulf country have failed to bring about a satisfactory result.

About 70 Iraqi Sunni organizations have threatened to boycott the elections, saying any elections should be held only after the withdrawal of foreign troops. Iraq's electoral commission earlier extended the deadline for the Sunni parties to decide their election candidates.

Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday told Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi that he did not see how Iraqis could vote under foreign occupation or how the country could hold together without outside help.

Political analysts also expressed their concerns.

"I am concerned that the elections can't come off because of the current security environment. I just don't see how that's going to happen," said Kenneth Pollack, of the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.

US leading newspaper the New York Times also warned that "unless large American forces stayed behind to protect voter registration, reconstruction and the training of future Iraqi police officers, the insurgency could bounce back, expand in numbers and disrupt the elections."

MORE PRESSURE ON IRAN

Bush appears to continue his pressure on Iran although Washington failed to win international support, even from its major European allies, to submit the Iran nuclear issues to the UN Security Council as Iran and three European countries, namely, France, Germany, Britain, reached an agreement on Nov. 29 on the suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment program.

Iran, a strong power in the oil-rich Middle East and one of the few countries in the region that dares to say "no" to Washington, has long been regarded by Washington as an obstacle in the US Middle East strategy. Bush listed Iran on the "axis of evil" and accused it of developing nuclear weapons secretly. The Bush administration has been tried for almost two years to take Iran's nuclear case to the Security Council in an attempt to put UN sanctions on the Islamic republic.

In his latest remarks on the development of nuclear talks between Iran and the three European Union countries, Bush insisted that any deal on Iran's nuclear activities must be "verifiable".

Washington, after the Nov. 29 agreement, agreed to hold off trying to punish Iran to give the country time to keep a promise to freeze all programs on the enrichment of uranium. But Iran said later it was only prepared to keep its uranium enrichment activities frozen for a few months instead of permanently as demanded by the European Union and Washington, claiming it "has right to enjoy the peaceful use of nuclear technology."

The US government has expressed skepticism that Iran will stick to its commitments with the EU, saying it reserves the right to take Iran's case to the Security Council on its own.

Analysts said since US policy-makers believed once Iran has nuclear weapons, the US interests in the Middle East will be in great danger. Therefore, Washington will go on pressing Iran to fully give up its nuclear program.