UNITED NATIONS – On the eve of his first visit to Washington as Israel’s leader, America’s international partners increased the pressure on Prime Minister Olmert to drop his “convergence plan,” the main policy idea behind his victorious March election campaign.

Diplomats on all sides expect the pressure that Europe, Russia, China, and the Middle East have mounted against any unilateral moves, as well as erosion in the pronounced policy of isolating the terror organization Hamas, will prevent the Bush administration from endorsing the plan publicly.

Mr. Olmert praised the Bush administration yesterday, telling the New York Times that President Bush is “my senior partner, and I hope that he is ready to accept me as his partner.” He also said, “Thank God there is America, thank God there is George W. Bush, thank God there is Condi Rice, the most decent people that I can talk with.”

Nevertheless, the prime minister is not expected to highlight in Washington the unilateral aspect of his plan, known in Hebrew as “hitkansut,” of determining Israel’s permanent borders even if the Jewish state has to do so without consulting the Palestinian Arabs.

Mr. Olmert will present details of his convergence plan to Mr. Bush, but according to Ha’aretz, he told top Cabinet ministers from his Kadima Party that only after three to 10 months could Israel publicly declare it has no partner on the Palestinian Arab side.

Instead, Mr. Olmert said Iran’s race to nuclear capability will top his agenda. While Israel is not leading the campaign, it expects the White House and others to do all they can to end the Iranian threat, he said.

A day after the U.N. Security Council urged Iran and Syria to stop interfering in Lebanon, President Assad of Syria told the visiting Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, “It is the legitimate rights of all countries including the Islamic Republic of Iran to benefit from nuclear energy and to go ahead with national development plans,” according to an IRNA dispatch from Damascus.

Criticizing the “unilateral interference of big powers in international fora,” Mr. Assad said pressure on both countries “would weaken credit and prestige of international organizations,” the state-run Iranian news agency reported. On another issue, Mr. Mottaki said America is “seeking to punish Hamas, the democratically elected government of Palestine.”

China’s ambassador to Israel, Chen Young Long, meanwhile, was summoned to the Israeli Foreign Ministry yesterday for a formal protest over an invitation of a Hamas official, the Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister, Mahmoud Zahar, to an official gathering in Beijing.

China is not a member of the Middle East Quartet – America, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations – that has told Hamas it would only be considered a negotiating partner after recognizing Israel’s right to exist, complying with prior agreements, and renouncing violence.

Although Hamas has rejected those conditions, European Union officials said yesterday that they would not support any unilateral action by Israel. The French foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, on a “friendship tour” of Israel this week, announced that Paris also would oppose any “unilateral decisions.”

Israel’s foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, said yesterday that over the weekend she would meet with President Abbas, and Mr. Olmert also indicated that he might meet the Palestinian Arab leader. But Mr. Olmert made clear yesterday that there is little hope for significant progress in negotiating with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.

“What can we do?” he told the New York Times. “The Palestinians don’t like us and don’t want to live with us. They want to have, maybe, an Islamic fundamentalist state. I want to live in a Jewish state.”

Mr. Olmert added he did not “believe that at any time in the future we will change things without talking to the Palestinians, without coordinating with the Palestinians, without checking with the Palestinians.” But the decision, he made clear, would be Israel’s.

Mr. Olmert also denied extensive reports in the press and by U.N. officials about a “humanitarian crisis” in the Palestinian Arab territories.

Referring specifically to a Times report on the lack of drugs and dialysis machines in Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, Mr. Olmert said that if necessary Israel would pay “out of our own pocket” to save lives.”We wouldn’t allow one baby to suffer one night because of a lack of dialysis. We care.”