US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Saturday he was anguished by the abuse of Abu Ghraib prisoners and vowed justice as he tried to blunt Arab anger about Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
His comments were met with scepticism by Arab businessmen and politicians, who listened in silence and questioned whether the United States could be trusted to get to the bottom of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.
"Our many friends around the world share our anguish right now about the revelations of abuse at Abu Ghraib. I can tell you straight from my heart we will deal with this, we will see that justice is done," Powell said.
But many of those who listened to his speech at a World Economic Forum meeting beside the Dead Sea were unconvinced.
"We have heard this before. The important thing is action, not words. We are not sure we can trust them," said a Jordanian businessman who asked not to be named.
"There was no electricity in the room. There was no chemistry. He couldn't have said anything else," added an Arab politician. "Is he sincere? I don't think so."
Powell's 24-hour visit to Jordan aimed to address Arab rage about the abuse and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers, who stripped them naked, positioned them to simulate sex acts and photographed them.
Powell also tried to revive the stymied Arab-Israeli peace process by meeting Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorie for the first time since the Palestinian took office last year.
US credibility in the Arab world has been shredded by the prisoner abuses in Iraq, which remains a caldron of violence since the US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein a year ago.
Powell asked Arabs not to lose sight of the "larger picture" in Iraq, where he said US soldiers were building schools, repairing hospitals and performing "thousands of acts of kindness and courage" ever day.
With UN assistance, the United States hopes to install a still undefined interim government in Iraq on July 1 that it says will enjoy sovereignty even though it will not control its own troops. Critics argue the interim government will have little real say in running the country of 25 million people.
Even King Abdullah, one of the closest US allies in the Arab world, stressed the importance of a credible political process in Iraq, where elections are to be held by January.
"Questions about the credibility of that process will encourage extremism and obstruct the process of regional reform," he said.
Abdullah also appeared to pressure the United States to play a more active role in pursing Arab-Israeli peace.
Saying US President George W. Bush recently reaffirmed his commitment to creating an independent Palestinian state, Abdullah said: "Let the world's leaders demonstrate, once and for all, that they are serious about Palestinian freedom."
In his talks with Qorie, Powell urged the Palestinians to embrace Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four of 120 settlements in the West Bank. Sharon is himself rethinking the plan following its rejection by his own Likud party.
"I think that the Palestinians want to seize the opportunity," Powell told a joint news conference with Qorie, who was silent on the point.
Asked if it was realistic to expect a Palestinian state by Bush's goal of 2005, he said: "Time is passing, and we have to look at the reality of the situation, and I think if anything, that says we need to redouble our efforts and get on with it".
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