Jerusalem ? International mediators presented Israeli and Palestinian leaders Wednesday with a new Middle East “road map,” an ambitious blueprint for ending 31 months of violence and establishing a Palestinian state.

The U.S.-backed plan is supported by a unique consensus of world leaders and comes at a time when U.S. clout is at a high point in the wake of Saddam Hussein’s ouster in Iraq.

It also coincides with the advent of a new Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, who was inaugurated as prime minister on Wednesday. He has denounced terrorism and vowed to end attacks on Israelis, but the dimensions of the problem were illustrated by the fact that a suicide attacker who killed three bystanders early Wednesday was linked to a group within Abbas’ own Fatah party.

And today, Israeli troops killed six Palestinians, one of them a young child, during a raid on an eastern suburb of Gaza City, local doctors said. The Israeli military said troops were on a mission to arrest wanted Palestinian militants.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Abbas would be invited to the White House to meet with President Bush. No date was given. Secretary of State Colin Powell will travel to the region in May and will meet Sharon and Abbas.

The plan, whose details have been known for months, was presented to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon by U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer in Jerusalem. Shortly thereafter, Abbas received it in the West Bank town of Ramallah from representatives of the four parties that drew up the plan: the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.

The three-year outline calls, in the first crucial phase, for a Palestinian crackdown on terror groups and an Israeli freeze on Jewish settlements, combined with a “progressive” Israeli pullout from the autonomous Palestinian zones its troops reoccupied during the current round of fighting.

A second phase, which could begin as early as the end of the year, would see the creation of a Palestinian state with provisional borders. Tough issues are left for the last phase, such as final borders, the conflicting claims to Jerusalem and the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants who claim the right to return to what is now Israel.