Lebanon and Hizbullah said the draft offered no timetable for an Israeli troop withdrawal.
According to this timetable, the draft should by now already have been finished, a referendum on its content should be taking place in a fortnight's time and parliamentary elections should be planned for early February at the latest.
Yet at the White House meeting today with Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, and other partners in the drafting of the timetable, Mr. Bush firmly declined to go along with their wish that the plan be published immediately.
Richard A. Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said today that the drafting of a timetable for the creation of a Palestinian state was being accompanied by actions leading to the goal of easing Mr. Arafat out.
They will coordinate the implementation of investments, the drafting of the timetable, development of the terminals and standardisation of regulations.
Mr. Hamoud said the draft specified that meeting the timetable, particularly the goal of full withdrawal by 2011, depended on the security situation.
The US, Israel's closest ally, had made clear it opposed the set timetable in the draft resolution, insisting instead on a negotiated peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians.
In Baghdad the chief Iraqi negotiator, Muhammad al-Haj Hamoud, told Reuters that the draft did not give a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, and left unresolved the issue of immunity of American troops from prosecution.
"You're almost forced to now, because before you know it you're at the combine and free agency and the draft," Bradway said of the upcoming N.F.L. timetable.
An official at the National Development and Reform Commission dismissed the report of a rejection and said the draft was "still under discussion and there's no clear timetable for implementation".
