Washington: Terming as "unrealistic", a return to pre-war Israeli-Arab borders when a Palestinian State emerges, US President George W Bush has said that Palestinian refugees must return not to Israel but to the new State when it is formed.

"The goal of two independent States has repeatedly been recognised in international resolutions and agreements, and it remains the key to resolving this conflict," Bush said at a joint appearance with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the White House yesterday (Apr 14, 2004). "The United States is already strongly committed to Israel's security and well being as a Jewish State. It seems clear that an agreed, just, fair and realistic framework for a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue, as part of any final status agreement, will need to be found through the establishment of a Palestinian State and the settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than Israel," he said.

"In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centres, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949," the US President said.

"And all previous efforts to negotiate a two-State solution have reached the same conclusion. It is realistic to expect that any final status agreement will only be achieved on the basis of mutually agreed changes that reflect these realities," he said.