Visiting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, delving into domestic Israeli affairs, wished Prime Minister Ariel Sharon well in getting the budget passed later this month, according to a statement released Sunday night by the Prime Minister's Office.

"Annan said he hopes the issue of Israel's budget will be successfully resolved so as to enable the important issues on the agenda to be dealt with," the statement said.

Annan also praised Sharon's courage in carrying out the disengagement plan, considering the considerable political difficulties in the way.
Sharon told Annan that the relative quiet of recent weeks was deceptive, and not due to actions the PA had taken to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure.

He expressed Israel's disappointment that, at the recent London conference, the international community did not take a firmer stand in calling on the PA to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure.

The emerging intra-Palestinian cease-fire was not enough, Sharon told Annan, who was making his fifth visit here since he became secretary-general, and his first since the summer of 2001. "Without real Palestinian action against terror, we will not be able to move anything forward," Sharon said.

He told Annan that while there had been a reduction in the level of anti-Israeli incitement in the PA, its educational system "continues to poison" its students against Israel, which represents a real "hurdle to peace."

Sharon briefed Annan on the current political situation and said he intended to carry out the disengagement plan according to schedule.

In addition, he told Annan, Israel would live up to its obligations and remove the 24 unauthorized outposts set up since March 2001. He indicated, though, that this would be unlikely until after the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Sharon said that although Israel was committed under the road map to dismantle the settlement outposts established since March 2001, the date he came to power, to take action now would likely lead to a delay in implementation of the disengagement plan, which he did not want.

But Sharon assured Annan that eventually, Israel would, as promised, remove the unlawful outposts.
Annan was the first of a parade of world leaders visiting Jerusalem for the dedication of Yad Vashem's new museum to meet Sharon, and Sharon's message to the UN chief will surely be repeated over the next three days to nearly a dozen others he is set to meet.

Some 40 world leaders are scheduled to arrive for the dedication ceremony. Sharon is scheduled to meet Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende on Monday. Annan is to go to Ramallah Monday for talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz is due to meet on Monday with Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Yousef to discuss the transfer of Jericho and Tulkarm to the Palestinian Authority.

Annan told Sharon that the UN was pleased that Israel was willing to coordinate the disengagement plan with the PA, and said he hoped the plan would lead to a return to the road map. The UN is one of the four sponsors of the road map, along with the US, Russia and the EU.

When Annan raised complaints about difficulties UN personnel were having moving through roadblocks in the territories, Sharon responded that as things quieted down, Israel would be willing to allow "life to return to normal."

Regarding Lebanon, Annan told Sharon that he was confident that the Syrians would withdraw their troops. Annan said he had instructed UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen "to demand a complete Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1559."

Sharon thanked Annan for convening a special UN session in January commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a move widely seen in Israel as an attempt by the UN chief to change the organization's reflexively anti-Israeli positions.

Up until that meeting, the UN was very reluctant to deal with the Holocaust. Sharon invited Annan to join him in Poland on May 5 to take part in the March of the Living.

One senior diplomatic official said that Annan decided to come to the Yad Vashem ceremony because "he is a strong supporter of the fight against anti-Semitism, and he believes there is much to be learned from lessons of the Holocaust. He is committed to Holocaust remembrance, and preventing genocide is one of the main topics in the UN, especially in light of the organization's failures in Rwanda and Sudan."

Annan's wife, Nane, is the niece of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Jews in Hungary during the Holocaust before disappearing. It has been widely reported that the last letter Wallenberg sent from Hungary was to congratulate his sister on the birth of her daughter, Nane.