Israel downplays rift with US

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon held talks with US Vice President Dick Cheney a day after a US-Israeli summit which highlighted gaping differences between the two allies over Jewish settlement activities in the West Bank.

At the 90-minute meeting, the two men discussed "strategic issues between Israel and the United States," a member of the Israeli delegation told reporters.

They also discussed the Iranian nuclear issue, he said, but did not give further details.

The meeting took place a day after US President George W. Bush hosted Sharon at his Texas ranch for talks which focused on Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip but which also saw the US leader rapping Sharon over the knuckles about settlement expansion in the West Bank.

Despite the public rebuke, Israeli officials were at pains to present the meeting as "very positive," with Sharon himself dismissing talk of a rift between the two allies over the settlements.

"There is no crisis," he said after the summit, telling reporters there had been "no disagreement whatsoever in the talks" about the planned expansion of Maaleh Adumim, which is the largest Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

Bush's comments about settlement expansion -- mentioned three times at a joint press conference -- came just weeks after Israel announced plans to build another 3,500 homes in Maaleh Adumim.

The Israeli delegation had been hoping the issue would be sidelined amid a flareup of violence in the southern Gaza Strip over the weekend.

"It was an excellent meeting," breezed an Israeli source close to Sharon, dismissing the settlement dispute as "a non-issue."

"It was clear that the settlement issue would be mentioned in public but the important thing is what was said in private, and it was not even mentioned during the talks," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.