Crawford, Tex. ? Despite differences, President Bush said he and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia forged a personal bond Thursday in five hours of talks at the president’s Texas ranch and Abdullah promised not to “use oil as a weapon” to show Arab anger over U.S. support for Israel.

The president’s upbeat assessment contrasted with Saudi complaints that his backing of Israel had damaged prospects for Mideast peace and threatened the United States’ 70-year alliance with the desert kingdom.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah greets members of the Texas Department of Public Safety troopers in Waco, Tex. The prince later Thursday met with President Bush at his ranch near Crawford, Tex., to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“There is a lot of anger at the U.S. for what is perceived as a lack of restraining (Ariel) Sharon,” the Israeli prime minister, said Adel al-Jubeir, Abdullah’s foreign policy adviser.

“The crown prince wanted to make sure the president was aware of this,” the adviser said. “Allowing this problem to spiral out of control will have grave consequences for the U.S. and its interests.”

Bush told reporters afterward that U.S.-Saudi relations were strong.

“A strategy by some would be to split the United States and Saudi Arabia. It’s a strong, important friendship and he knows that, I know that, and we’re not going to let that happen,” Bush said.

He took a personal view of that friendship after he and Abdullah, who spoke in Arabic and used a translator, lingered in their meetings and a drive in Bush’s pickup truck through the woods of his Prairie Chapel Ranch.

“One of the really positive things out of this meeting is the fact the crown prince and I established a strong personal bond,” Bush said. “We’ve spent a lot of time alone discussing our respective visions, talking about our families.”

The Israeli-Palestinian crisis dominated Bush’s first face-to-face meeting with Abdullah.

“There is a shared vision,” the president said, adding that they discussed possible next steps in carrying out a Saudi peace plan championed by Abdullah and endorsed by the 22-member Arab League.

The crown prince, who rarely comments to the media, left without public comment.

But al-Jubeir, his foreign policy adviser, made it clear after the meeting that the crown prince had voiced his disapproval of Bush’s policy toward Israel.

He said Abdullah told Bush: “America is a country that was based on justice and freedom and doing what’s right. America should pursue those principles in its foreign policies.”

Sharon “is doing great harm to America’s credibility in the Arab and Muslim world,” al-Jubeir said.

Bush said his demand that Israel withdraw from Palestinian areas still stands: “I made it clear to him that I expected Israel to withdraw, just like I’ve made it clear to Israel. And we expect them to be finished.” He also said Israel must resolve standoffs in Ramallah and Bethlehem “in a nonviolent way.”

Bush said he was grateful for Abdullah’s assurance that Saudi Arabia would not support any other angry Arab states joining Iraq’s oil embargo.

The Saudi leader “made it clear … that they will not use oil as a weapon and I appreciate that, respect that and expect that to be the case,” Bush said.

Texas-style tour

The two leaders met inside Bush’s ranch home, talked over lunch and then set out in his truck to explore the 1,600 acres’ wooded canyons dotted with Texas bluebonnets and wild pink poppies.

Given rising U.S.-Saudi tensions, White House officials had made contingency plans for the visit to be cut short. Instead, the crown prince lingered more than two hours over schedule.

Some oil prices surged Thursday on fears that Abdullah would threaten to choke off Saudi oil to the United States. Al-Jubeir denied that. “We’ve always been a reliable source of oil, and we’ll continue to be,” he said.

Differences remain

Further straining the U.S.-Saudi relationship at a time when Bush is trying to stick to a zero-tolerance policy against terrorists are recent displays of Saudi support for Palestinian suicide bombings of Israeli civilians.

A senior administration official briefing reporters after Thursday’s talks said Bush raised general concerns about inciting anti-Israel terror.

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Britain published a poem praising Palestinian suicide bombers as “martyrs” and the Saudi government sponsored a telethon that collected $100 million to help the bombers’ families. Secretary of State Colin Powell testified to the Senate this week that some of that money may have gone to elements of the militant Hamas organization.

U.S. officials at the ranch questioned the Saudi foreign minister in detail Thursday and were assured that telethon proceeds were being funneled only to humanitarian aid groups, the official said.

The leaders reached no decision on a Mideast peace conference. On expanding the anti-terror war into Iraq, which Arab nations are resisting, Bush spoke of Saddam Hussein as a serious menace, the official said, and they discussed ideas of what to do about him.

With Abdullah remaining in the United States a couple more days, White House officials said they would continue to tend to the relationship. Today, Abdullah is to take a train with former President Bush, from Houston to College Station, Tex., for lunch.