By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Wednesday tried to set the tone for a U.S.-sponsored Middle East summit as a serious effort toward reaching peace, despite Palestinian and Israeli disagreement over the agenda.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would not attend the meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, without substantive measures on the table, while Israel opposes setting deadlines on divisive issues.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went to the region and met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to try to smooth the way for the summit to be held in November or December.

But Abbas said time was running out for an agreement with Israel on key issues and Palestinians would not attend at any price.

Israel wants a broad-brush paper that is vague on the most divisive issues -- borders, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees.

Both sides have said they see the conference as a launching point for negotiations for Palestinian statehood, something Bush has long advocated.

But some Arab leaders have cast doubt on whether the United States has done enough to lay the groundwork for such talks, and it remains unclear which countries will attend.

"We believe that now is the time to push ahead with a meeting at which the Israelis and Palestinians will lay out a vision of what a state could look like," Bush said at a White House news conference.

"And the reason why there needs to be a vision of what a state could look like is because the Palestinians that have been made promises all these years need to see there's a serious, focused effort to step up a state," he said.

"And that's important so that the people who want to reject extremism have something to be for," Bush said.

"SERIOUS ATTEMPT"

The Bush administration had sought to bolster Abbas after Hamas won a parliamentary election last year. The United States, which considers Hamas to be a terrorist organization, initiated the Middle East conference after the Islamist group took control of the Gaza Strip in June.

"So this is a serious attempt. And I'm pleased with the progress," Bush said.

Nevertheless, skepticism runs deep in the Arab world over whether Bush is truly committed to resuming Washington's traditional peacemaking role. Critics have accused him of neglecting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while waging the unpopular Iraq war.

Bush said in the end it was up to the Israelis and Palestinians to reach common ground, and that the United States could only play the role of facilitator. "The United States can't impose peace," Bush said.

"In order for there to be a Palestinian state, it's going to require the Israelis and the Palestinians coming to an accord," Bush said.

Another reason for the international meeting was to "get Arab buy-in for a state," Bush said.

In the past, Arab countries have stood on the sidelines and were not a part of the process of helping to move the peace process forward.

His comments came after Iran's top cleric, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged Muslim countries to boycott the summit and called it "a deceitful conference."

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