U.S. President George W. Bush will leave later today for a Mideast trip, his second in four months. «I'm optimistic,» he said over and over about the prospects for ending one of the world's longest-running disputes within little more than a year. He was due to arrive in Israel early Wednesday, according to a report of the Associated Press. In November, when Bush convened nearly 50 countries in Annapolis, Maryland, for a Mideast peace conference that launched the first formal negotiations in years between Israelis and Palestinians, he repeatedly said a deal was doable by the time he leaves office next January. «I wouldn't be standing here if I didn't believe that peace was possible,» he said at a Rose Garden send-off for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Bush was just as cheerful in January before, during and after a Mideast trip. «There's a good chance for peace,» he said in Israel, his first visit there as president. «When I say I'm optimistic we can get a deal done, I mean what I'm saying,» Bush said in Egypt. «I'm still as optimistic as I was after Annapolis, » Bush said after meeting at the White House with Jordan's King Abdullah II.
