A looming U.S. war on Iraq and Washington's desire for Israel to stay out of it were likely to be high on the agenda of talks on Wednesday between President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon .

But with the White House saying Bush has yet to decide on military action and Sharon calling for less "babble" on the issue, little may emerge from the meeting on how far the Israeli leader is willing to go to appease his country's main ally.

"As far as anything involving Iraq, given the fact that the president has not made any decisions about anything military, I think it's going to be premature to get into anything specific about anything that might involve any countries in the region," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said on Tuesday.

Sharon's seventh White House visit since taking office 18 months ago follows rare disharmony with Bush over Palestinian civilian casualties in Israeli raids on resistance men and a siege of Yasser Arafat's compound that was aborted under U.S. pressure.

Israeli leaders have said Bush feared tough Israeli moves against Palestinian resistance men or retaliation for possible Iraqi missile attack after war on Iraq begins could harm U.S. efforts to attract Arab support for the campaign.

Nonetheless, Israeli political and security sources said Sharon would make a case for continuing to crack down on resistance and give Bush intelligence information about attacks they are planning against Israelis.

"In effect, the talks could set red lines for Israeli operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip ," one security source said.
On the eve of his White House meeting, Sharon held talks over dinner with U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice , Israeli officials said.

HUMANITARIAN CONCERNS

Sharon and Israeli officials have been noncommittal over whether Israel would hold its fire, as it did in the 1991 Gulf War , and not retaliate should Iraqi Scud missiles strike.

Israel has developed its own partly U.S.-funded ballistic missile killer, the Arrow, and received improved U.S.-made Patriot missile batteries -- a second, lower-altitude line of a defense should the Arrow miss its target in space.

Sharon said last week "if Israel is attacked, it will protect its citizens." But he said in an earlier newspaper interview that Israel might not retaliate if casualties from a missile strike were low.

However, he would likely face heavy public pressure to strike back in the event of a biological or chemical attack.

It is taken as conventional wisdom in Israel that by not responding to 39 Scud missile attacks in 1991, Israeli deterrence in the Arab world was hard hit. Those missile strikes caused heavy damage but few casualties.

With world attention on Iraq, the United States, in a letter last week, pressed Israel to ease the plight of ordinary Palestinians under curfew and blockade in West Bank cities that Israeli occupation forces reoccupied in June following resistance bombings.

"The president has a lot of humanitarian thought ... toward the legitimate needs of the Palestinian people. And he wants to continue to impress that message on Israel. It's important for Israel to hear that message," Fleischer said.

Bush has also been demanding reform and a change of leadership among Palestinians as conditions for resuming talks on statehood, the goal of their 2-year-old uprising.

PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon , right, and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, left, pause prior to a cabinet meeting in Sharon's Jerusalem office Sunday Oct. 6, 2002. According to Israel radio, Sharon told the ministers at the meeting that they should not speak in public about Iraq after U.S. President George W. Bush told Sharon to make sure Israel keeps a low profile in American efforts to bolster world support for a strike against Iraq. (AP Photo/Jack Guez, POOL)