Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a stiff reply to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said Monday the Bush administration intended to push ahead vigorously with a peace plan devised in conjunction with European leaders. Polls in Israel meanwhile show that the hard line Premier is set to win elections set for later this month. Intifadha confrontations continued throughout the election campaign.

He said a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was essential and that the Bush administration would proceed immediately after Israel holds elections next week.

Sharon, who is facing a concession-minded Labor Party candidate, Amram Mitzna, in his bid for another term as prime minister, said Sunday that European nations were biased in favor of the Palestinians and could not be Middle East mediators.

The United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union are jointly backing a roadmap to a settlement. Palestinian statehood by 2005 is a goal.

The plan, which is likely to be endorsed by the United States and its partners next month, does not call for a change in the Palestinian leadership, as President Bush has demanded.

Sharon, while not dealing directly with provisions of the roadmap, said he saw "eye-to-eye" with the Americans, apparently referring to Bush, whose support for Israel far exceeds that of the Europeans.

Powell, at a news conference on Monday, closed ranks with the Europeans on peacemaking, though. He said, "We are fully supportive of the Quartet (the four powers that drew up the roadmap)" and have worked very hard on the plan.

Once Israel holds its elections, he said, the United States and its partners intend to move ahead.

In a day of speechmaking at a U.N. conference on terrorism there were repeated calls for Palestinian statehood and criticism of Israel as an occupying force. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin were among the ministers who spoke on behalf of the Palestinians and did not criticize their leadership.

Sharon's Likud on Course to Win Israeli Election

In Israel, new opinion polls put Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's right-wing Likud party firmly on course Monday to win next week's general election and showed that its chief rivals are failing to close the gap.

Polls in two newspapers showed Likud winning at least 12 seats more than its main opponent, the center-left Labor Party, but falling far short of a simple majority in parliament. Likud says it wants to form another coalition government if it wins.

Intifadha Continues Throughout Campaign

Intifadha confrontations have meanwhile continued throughout the campaign. The Israeli army Monday blew up a house in the West Bank city of Hebron belonging to an Islamic militant who it said had planned a suicide bombing, witnesses said.

Palestinians said the army also had told them to evacuate the Nazlat Issa market area in the West Bank city of Tulkarm because it plans to demolish 170 stores there.

PHOTO CAPTION

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell addresses a United Nations Security Council session on combatting terrorism Monday, Jan. 20, 2003. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)