The crown prince told President Bush that the U.S. must temper its support for Israel or face consequences throughout the Arab world.

CRAWFORD, Tex., April 25 — Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia told President Bush bluntly today that the United States must temper its support for Israel or face grave consequences throughout the Arab world, Saudi officials said.

In several sessions lasting five hours at the president's central Texas ranch, the crown prince told Mr. Bush that if the United States did not do more to stop incursions into Palestinian areas by the forces of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, it would continue to lose credibility in the Middle East and create more instability there, the Saudi officials said.

"If Sharon is left to his own devices, he will drag the region over a cliff," Adel al-Jubeir, the foreign policy adviser to the crown prince, said after the meetings between Mr. Bush and the prince. "That does not serve America's interests, and it does not serve Saudi Arabia's interests."

Mr. Bush and American officials, while they did not deny that Prince Abdullah had presented his case forcefully, offered a far more positive account of the meetings.

"One of the really positive things out of this meeting was that the crown prince and I established a strong personal bond," Mr. Bush told reporters after the meeting. "We spent a lot of time alone."

Both Mr. Bush and Mr. Jubeir said the crown prince had not threatened in any way to reduce Saudi oil exports to the United States. A person close to the prince had suggested on Wednesday that could happen if the United States continued what the Saudis view as a one-sided policy toward Israel.

Saudi Arabia is America's second-largest foreign supplier of oil, and in 2001 exported nearly 605 million barrels to the United States, or 8.5 percent of what the country consumed.

"Saudi Arabia made it clear, and has made it clear publicly, that they will not use oil as a weapon," Mr. Bush said.

Mr. Jubeir echoed the president. "Oil is not a weapon," he said to reporters here. "Oil is not a tank. You cannot fire oil."

Saudi officials also denied today a suggestion from a person close to the royal family who was quoted in The New York Times that their government might demand that the United States leave strategic military bases in Saudi Arabia if the Bush administration refuses to rein in Mr. Sharon.

Mr. Bush, who a week ago infuriated the Arab world by calling Mr. Sharon "a man of peace," said he had told Prince Abdullah that he was counting on Israel to withdraw its forces from Palestinian areas, including, he said, resolving the standoffs in Ramallah and Bethlehem.

"I made it clear to him that I expected Israel to withdraw, just like I've made it clear to Israel," Mr. Bush said. "And we expect them to be finished. He knows my position. He also knows that I will work for peace. I will bring parties along."

"But I think he recognizes that America can't do it alone, that it's going to require a unified effort," the president added. "And one of the main things about this visit was to solidify that effort."

The meeting today seemed primarily to be a chance for the Saudis to lecture the American president, to strengthen their hand and quiet the growing unrest in their streets.

No joint statement was issued afterward, although the White House proposed one on Wednesday that was rejected by the Saudis, an official familiar with the talks said.

The Saudis objected to the United States' characterization of a peace initiative proposed by the crown prince in March, the official said. Specifically, the official said, the United States emphasized the recognition of Israel in the statement but did not include the requirement that Israel withdraw to its 1967 borders. The prince's plan calls for "normal relations" with Israel, the creation of a Palestinian state and Israel's return to its 1967 boundaries.

A Bush administration official who briefed reporters after the meeting did not explain the reason for the lack of a joint statement.

"You know, after these meetings, we sometimes have joint statements, and we sometimes don't have joint statements," the official said. "There is not going to be a joint statement for this meeting."
Administration officials said the president and the prince had discussed the idea of an international peace conference, but had not come to a conclusion.

"We haven't made any decision about whether we think an international conference makes sense now," the administration official said. "Any such conference would have be to very well prepared."

Saudi officials appeared skeptical about the idea, particularly given Mr. Sharon's isolation of Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, in his compound in Ramallah, and Mr. Sharon's refusal to have Mr. Arafat attend an Arab League meeting in March.
"You can't have a peace conference if Sharon gets to decide who attends and who doesn't attend," Mr. Jubeir said. "That's not a peace conference. That's not going to fly."

Mr. Bush and Prince Abdullah also discussed American proposals to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, American and Saudi officials said, offering no details of the conversation.

"The president, once again, noted that Saddam Hussein and his efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction are a threat to the region," the administration official said. He added: "The Saudis clearly understand the dangers from Saddam Hussein. They live in his neighborhood. They know what kind of regime that is."

Mr. Jubeir said after the meeting that the United States strategy for removing Mr. Hussein was not fully developed. "We do not believe the policy of the administration has been finalized," he said.

But he nonetheless said Saudi Arabia would not allow the United States to use Saudi bases to stage any future attack against Iraq.

"The administration is not at the point where they would ask that question," Mr. Jubeir said. "Were they to ask that question, our response would be that it would not serve the interests of the U.S. and it would not serve the interests of the region."

Prince Abdullah arrived this morning at the airport in Waco, Tex., where he was greeted by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, and was then driven for 50 minutes to Mr. Bush's 1,600-acre ranch.

The prince was 10 minutes late in arriving at the ranch, where reporters could see the president in the breezeway of the house shifting from foot to foot like an anxious host.

The president and the prince met for two hours in the morning, and spent part of that time one-on-one, administration officials said. Afterward, Mr. Bush gave him a tour of the ranch in his pickup truck.

"He's a man who's got a farm and he understands the land, and I really took great delight in being able to drive him around in a pickup truck and showing him the trees and my favorite spots," Mr. Bush said. "And we saw a wild turkey, which was good."

Afterward, the two had a lunch of beef tenderloin, potato salad, brownies and ice cream. The lunch broke up after 3:30 p.m., more than an hour after it was scheduled to end.

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By Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times