Qureia wrote that in 1991 the US government stated its opposition to "unilateral actions that prejudge the outcome of permanent-status negotiations." Qureia said Bush is allowing Israel "to continue creating illegal facts on the ground" by expanding West Bank settlements.
Bush gave the assurances to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during a White House meeting last week.
At the time, Bush also endorsed Sharon's plan of "unilateral disengagement" from the Palestinians, including a withdrawal from Gaza and the evacuation of four small West Bank settlements. In exchange, Israel wants to keep and expand five large West Bank settlement blocs with tens of thousands of settlers.
Bush's backing boosted Sharon's chances of winning crucial approval for the plan in a referendum of his Likud Party on May 2.
Palestinian leaders are dismayed by Bush's new policy. Palestinians claim all of the West Bank and Gaza, along with the right of refugees and their descendants to return to Israel, if they so choose.
Bush defended his decision to support Sharon's territorial plan, saying it included the major concession of an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
"The whole world should have said, 'Thank you, Ariel,' " Bush told executives of more than 1,500 Associated Press-member newspapers at the cooperative's annual meeting in Washington, yesterday. Instead, he said, "there was kind of silence, wasn't there?"
Bush's move on Israel drew angry responses throughout the Arab world, including from moderate US allies Jordan and Egypt.
In new fighting in Gaza, Israeli troops raided the northern town of Beit Lahiya for the second straight day to stop a barrage of homemade rockets fired at nearby Jewish settlements.
Nine Palestinians were killed in yesterday's fighting, including at least three civilians, among them a 15-year-old boy, hospital officials said. At least five of the dead were gunmen, and 27 people were wounded. It was the bloodiest day in Gaza since March 22, when Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin and 10 other Palestinians were killed.
Yesterday, Israeli troops surrounded a housing project in Beit Lahiya. Bulldozers began demolishing a building under construction, witnesses said, while gunmen exchanged fire with the troops.
