Jerusalem: US President George Bush paid homage to Holocaust victims before a biblical tour today that will wrap up a Holy Land visit in which he urged Israelis and Palestinians to get serious about peace efforts.

Accompanied by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres, Bush toured Jerusalem's Yad Vashem memorial to the six million Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust of World War Two, a traditional stop for foreign dignitaries visiting Israel.

He walked sombrely past photographs of victims before a ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance, where an eternal flame flickers and the names of concentration camps are laid out in stark white letters on a grey stone floor.

Bush later visits the Church of the Beatitudes on the shore of the Sea of Galilee at the end of a visit aimed at breathing life into West Asia peace talks.
After separate meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem, Bush is leaving them with the message: now is the time to make difficult choices.

His first visit to Israel and the West Bank in seven years as president sought to create momentum towards establishing a Palestinian state, after a November summit in Annapolis, Maryland intended to jump-start peace talks.

 

Source : UNI