"The Geneva accord is a culmination of all previous accords that have been passed", Carter was quoted as saying in an interview posted on Sunday on the Swiss website Swissinfo.

The former US leader also confirmed that he would be present in Geneva on December 1 for the official launch of the plan, which has been sharply criticised by the Israeli government.

Carter said the Geneva plan could give a new lease of life to the "roadmap" for Middle East peace drawn up by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.

The Geneva blueprint was drafted by politicians from the Israeli opposition, including former Israeli justice minister Yossi Beilin, and senior Palestinians including former minister Yasser Abed Rabbo.

Finalised last month in Jordan, the initiative seeks to provide a far more comprehensive solution to the Middle East conflict than the roadmap, which Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has signed up to.

Thorny issues such as Jewish settlements and the borders of a future Palestinian state are addressed by the Geneva document.

It also lays out plans for both sides to share sovereignty over Jerusalem and reach a compromise on the issue of Palestinian refugees' right of return.

Carter, who played a decisive role in the first Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt in 1979, said in the interview he was "very discouraged and disappointed by the lack of progress in the so-called roadmap process".

He said the Geneva Initiative was totally compatible with the final objective of the roadmap and the 1993 Oslo agreements between Israelis and Palestinians on Palestinian autonomy.

It was a continuation of proposals put to former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat by former US president Bill Clinton in 2000, he said.

The Geneva document also represented progress as far as the vexed question of Israeli settlements in the West Bank was concerned, he added.

Carter strongly criticised current US President George W. Bush's policy in the Middle East.

"President Bush is the first US president since the foundation of Israel who has taken a position strongly biased to the Israeli side," Carter said.

"There have been a few weak statements from the Bush administration on settlements and the (Israeli security) fence but no real effort to do more."

Israel is constructing a barrier along the West Bank which encroaches on Palestinian land and has been condemned by the European Union and rights groups. Israel says the barrier is necessary to keep out suicide bombers. Palestinians say it is a land grab.

The Geneva initiative has been rejected outright by Sharon and the radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad.

Sharon has said the initiative is an "illusion" and the US-backed "roadmap" is the only hope of finding peace with the Palestinians.

And senior Islamic Jihad official Nizar Rayan told a rally of thousands of supporters on Friday: "We will continue to oppose the Geneva initiative and such agreements until all Palestinian refugees have returned to their homes."

WAR.WIRE