(National Security Advisor Rice briefs on upcoming trip) (1260) By Wendy S. Ross Washington File White House Correspondent Washington -- White House National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice says President Bush believes the time is right to try to help the Israelis and the Palestinians move toward peace, and that is why he decided to go to the Middle East directly following his May 30-June 2 visits to Poland and Russia and attendance at the annual G-8 meeting of leading industrial nations in Evian-les-Bains, France. From June 2-5, Bush will visit Egypt, Jordan and Qatar. "The president has always said that when he thought he could give a little impetus to what is going to be a very long and difficult process, that he would do so," Rice explained, as she briefed reporters at the White House May 28 on the president's upcoming trip. Bush, she said, "believes that this is a new opportunity for peace at the end of the war in Iraq; and particularly, with changes in the Palestinian leadership, that there is a new opportunity, with the Israeli government's acceptance of the steps in the roadmap and some of the statements that [Israel's] Prime Minister [Ariel] Sharon has made about the future that he sees with the Palestinian people." President Bush "just believes that this is a good time to sit down, face to face, eye to eye, with the leaders who have responsibility for trying to bring about that peace" in the Middle East, she said. "I want to be very clear; this is going to be a long process, and it is going to have ups and downs, as it has always had. But on this entire Middle East portion, what the president will do is to talk to the assembled leaders about their responsibilities and about our responsibilities to try and push forward the peace," Rice said. "[T]he core of the president's message," she said, is "that it's fine for the Palestinians to talk about what Israel ought to do, and Israel to talk about what the Palestinians ought to do, but it's best if everybody takes on their responsibilities for peace and pursues them aggressively. "That's a message that is getting through in the Middle East, and it's a message that our European colleagues are telling us that they're very glad he's going to have this opportunity to take." Rice said that, "conditions permitting," Bush would meet separately with Sharon and with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, and also jointly with the two of them. Bush "has always said that he wants to meet when he believes that he can advance the agenda. He fully believes that he is now in a position to advance the agenda, or we would not have planned the trip," she said. "We're watching the circumstances. We're watching to see if the parties are moving forward. It is, after all, the case that the parties have to be dedicated and devoted in moving forward. But we believe that we're at a place where this meeting is likely to be very helpful. And so the president is simply saying that he will assess, but he fully believes that he's going to be able to go forward," she said. Earlier, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters that the French government had been notified that President Bush would be leaving the G-8 meeting before its conclusion to go to the Middle East. "The French were notified yesterday about the duration which the president will be there. Obviously, he has a lot of priorities on this trip, and the Middle East is clearly one of them," Fleischer said. "But he'll be there for all the main events. ... He'll have plenty of opportunities to focus on the events at Evian, which he very much wants to participate in and focus on because, after all, the purpose of Evian and the G-8 is to talk about how to improve, by working together, the economies of the world," the press secretary said. "At a time when the United States economy is growing faster than most of the European economies, there's a lot we can talk about, particularly also helping the developing world by the United States and Europe working together." Following is President Bush's itinerary as outlined by Rice: President and Mrs. Bush, will arrive in Krakow, Poland, the night of Friday, May 30. The following morning they will travel to Auschwitz and Birkenhau to honor the memory of the innocents lost in the Holocaust. Bush will then have a bilateral meeting with Poland's President Aleksander Kwasniewski and Prime Minister Leszek Miller and then deliver an address to the people of Poland before departing later that afternoon for St. Petersburg, Russia. That evening President and Mrs. Bush will join Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Mrs. Putin and their guests in celebrating the 300th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg. On Sunday, June 1, President Bush and President Putin will meet to discuss issues of bilateral and regional interest, including Iran. Later that morning Bush will depart St. Petersburg for Geneva en route to Evian, France, for the meeting of G-8 leaders. Bush will lunch with the meeting host, French President Jacques Chirac, and with the other G-8 leaders. At the lunch Chirac will also host many other heads of state as well as the leaders of several multilateral organizations. All of these leaders will then participate in a meeting later that afternoon. The evening of June 1, Bush will meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Bush will then dine with his fellow G-8 leaders, and the heads of the member nations of the New Partnership for African Development. Monday, June 2, the G-8 leaders will hold a working session, and then Bush and Chirac will meet together. After that there will be a working lunch of the G-8 leaders. Later that afternoon on June 2 Bush will depart the G-8 for Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, at the invitation of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak. The morning of June 3 Bush will hold a bilateral meeting with Mubarak. Mubarak will then host a meeting of Bush, Crown Prince Abdallah of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah of Jordan, King Hamad of Bahrain, and the Palestinian prime minister. That will be followed by a working lunch of that group of leaders. The following morning, June 3rd, the president will have a bilateral meeting with Mubarak. Mubarak will then host a meeting with Bush, Crown Prince Abdullah, King Abdullah, King Hamad, and the Palestinian prime minister. That will be followed by a working lunch of that group of leaders. Bush will depart the next morning, Wednesday, June 4th, for Aqaba, Jordan, at the invitation of King Abdullah, with whom he will meet upon his arrival. Later that morning, "conditions permitting," Bush will meet with Prime Minister Sharon, followed by a meeting with Prime Minister Abbas. That afternoon, "conditions permitting," the president will have a trilateral meeting with Sharon and Abbas. The president will then depart en route to Doha, Qatar, where the next morning, Thursday, June 5th, he will breakfast with Ambassador Paul Bremer and General Tommy Franks, followed by a meeting with his host, Amir Hamad. The president will then travel to regional Central Command headquarters to visit with coalition forces. That evening, President and Mrs. Bush will depart for Washington, arriving home on the night of June 5th.