Washington ? Keeping a promise to impatient European and Arab governments, the Bush administration sent a top American diplomat to London on Monday in a bid to get peacemaking in the Middle East rolling.

William Burns, the assistant secretary of state for the Near East, will meet with European, Russian and U.N. officials on an emerging “roadmap” — designed to produce a Palestinian state in 2005 on land Israel has held for more than 35 years.

European and Arab governments, many of them withholding support for a U.S.-led war to disarm Iraq, have championed the cause of the Palestinians.

A move by the Palestinian leadership to designate a prime minister under Yasser Arafat was welcomed by the State Department on Monday as a serious step toward reform.

President Bush, while promising Palestinians a state, has conditioned U.S. support on Arafat’s removal. Bush has accused the Palestinian leadership of corruption and entanglement with terror.

Israel and the Palestinians sent delegations Monday to London to meet with the mediators from the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.

While trying to drum up support for a tough approach to Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell promised to step up U.S. diplomacy in the Middle East after Israel held its elections.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon won that race in January, overwhelming the dovish Labor Party, which had offered to give up most of the West Bank, all of Gaza, part of Jerusalem, and uproot most of the Jews who live in the territories in exchange for Palestinian promises of peace.

But Arafat did not accept the offer two years ago, and Sharon is prepared to offer far less in an interim accord.