WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (AFP) - The United States has asked Israel for further clarification of comments made by a top aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who said that the premier wants to sabotage the "roadmap" for peace, US officials said Thursday.
The State Department said Washington was pleased that Sharon's office had restated the prime minister's commitment to the peace plan but added that Dov Weisglass' comments needed additional explanation.
"It's for the Israeli government to clarify the implications of any comments made by Israeli government people or officials or people associated with the prime minister," spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters. "We have, ourselves, questioned the Israelis about these statements."
Later, a senior State Department official said that despite the statement from Sharon's office, Washington has residual concerns about the remarks of Weisglass, Sharon's former chief of staff and a chief Israeli interlocuter with the United States.
"They have to explain the comments," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity. "We think they still bear some explanation."
The State Department had on Wednesday said Washington was satisfied with the statement from Sharon's office on support for the peace plan and offered no hint that US concerns about the Weisglass comments remained.
Secretary of State Colin Powell reiterated that view on Thursday, telling reporters after a meeting with new Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutake Machimura that the United States looked to Sharon, and not his aides, to set and carry out Israeli policy.
"He is the one that we listen and pay attention to," Powell said, noting the statement from Sharon's office.
But the senior State Department official said the United States wanted more assurances on Israel's commitment to the roadmap because of Weisglass' closeness to Sharon and the gravity of his remarks.
"It's a job they need to do," the official said.
Weisglass was quoted in an interview with Israel's Haaretz newspaper as saying that Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza was a deliberate attempt to undermine the roadmap's promise of Palestinian statehood next year.
According to Haaretz, Weisglass said Sharon's plan to withdraw Israeli troops and settlements from the Gaza Strip was intended to prevent or at least delay progress toward the roadmap goals.
"The significance of the disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process," the paper quoted Weisglass as saying. He also said Sharon's strategy had the "blessing" of the US Congress and Bush who came out in support of the pullout proposal in April.
Boucher flatly rejected that assertion.
"That is decidedly not the policy of the United States," he said insisting that the United States was still firmly behind the roadmap and calling for both Israel and the Palestinians to implement its steps.
After hearing from US diplomats on Wednesday about Weisglass' comments, Sharon's office issued a brief statement that said the prime minister "supports the roadmap, the only plan liable to help progress towards a viable political agreement."
The roadmap -- drafted by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia -- calls for an end to violence and the creation of Palestinian state by end 2005. Its implementation however has stalled amid persistent violence since it was launched in June 2003.
Despite endorsing the Gaza pullout plan, Washington insists it still wants to see the implementation of the roadmap, and the State Department said the United States remained convinced that Israel's withdrawal from the territory could energize the peace process.
"Both we and Israel continue to look at the Gaza disengagement plan as a real opportunity to make progress in the quest for Middle East peace and an opportunity to return to a political process," said a spokesman.