Ramallah  - Palestinians expressed doubt Wednesday that the visit to Washington of their president, Mahmoud Abbas, and his meeting with US President Barack Obama on Thursday will result in pressure on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.

According to columnist Omar Ghoul, writing in the pro-Abbas al-Hayat al-Jadida daily, Abbas' problem with the Obama administration is that the latter is "going along with Israeli stalling policy" and has a "cautious approach to Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people."

The administration, he said, sees eye-to-eye with Israel on issues critical to the Palestinians, such as the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to the homes they abandoned in the 1948-149 Arab-Israeli war, Jerusalem, borders and settlements.

"This situation makes President Abu Mazen (Abbas) and the Palestinian leadership doubtful of any serious breakthrough in US policy" toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Ghoul said.

Abbas expressed hope in the Canadian capital Ottawa, which he visited before leaving for Washington late Tuesday night, that the Obama administration will force Israel to stop all settlement activities in the West Bank and accept the two-state solution.

He said that peace talks will not resume before Israel accepts the two-state solution and stops expanding settlements. Any peace plan should lead to an end to the Israeli occupation started in 1967 and the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, he said.

Abbas' spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh, who is traveling with Abbas, also said in press statements that the Palestinian president will tell his US counterpart that the Palestinians do not want to hear words, but they want to see deeds.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met Obama on May 18, has refused to explicitly endorse a solution to conflict which would see an Israel and Palestinian state living side by side.

The radical Islamic Jihad, which is opposed to any long-term peace treaty with Israel, said Tuesday that it was a waste of time to expect anything from the US.

"Our people cannot forget that the US stood by the occupiers (Israel) and that it has contributed to the suffering of our people," Islamic Jihad leader Azzam Ahmad said

He said that after Abbas meets Obama "we will come out with a conclusion that betting on the US position is a losing bet because there is nothing to make us believe that there is anything new toward the Palestinian cause and the US will not pressure Israel or demand from it to change its policy toward the Palestinians." (dpa)