The president, it said, believes the world is at a "hopeful moment" for nudging the Israelis and Palestinians to peace and is determined to help bring success about.
"This is a hopeful moment in the Middle East, and that's how the president begins this," spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
"We've seen before, hopeful moments in the Middle East go up in a puff of violence. We hope that won't be the case again. But the president is determined to make every, every effort to take advantage of this time in history." Coinciding with the speech is a visit to the region by Secretary of State Colin Powell to drum up support for the "road map" for peace drawn up by the United States, with input from Russia, the United Nations and the European Union.
The road map, if adapted and successfully concluded, would lead to an independent Palestinian state by 2005.
"Of course we're going to make progress," Bush said Thursday following a meeting with Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani of Qatar, a key ally in the Gulf.
"The reason we'll make progress is that the Palestinian Authority now has a leader and prime minister that has renounced violence and said he wants to work with us to make the region more secure. He understands what we know -- that a peace process will proceed if and when there is a concerted effort to fight violence."
The road map includes provisions for a cease-fire and steps to ensure Israeli security and the end of illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands.
Presentation the plan came after the Palestinians elected a first-ever prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas, who goes by the name Abu Mazen, is one of the original founders of the Palestinine Liberation Organization's Fatah faction, and has pledged to follow the path of negotiation to peace.
The United States had insisted on political and social reforms within the Palestinian Authority as a condition to moving the peace process forward, arguing that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was a stumbling block to peace and alleging that Arafat has been linked to terrorism against Israel and corruption within the Palestinian Authority he led.
Abbas has now taken over day-to-day management of the PA from Arafat.
Bush said Friday that part of his talks with the emir of Qatar Thursday concerned efforts to get the Arab world to "assume its responsibilities -- stopping the funding of terror and working with the Palestinian Authority to encourage the habits of democracy and freedom."
The road map has been accepted by Abbas, but Israeli Prime Minister Aeriel Sharon has objected to a section that provides for the return of exiled and expatriate Palestinians to a Palestinian state.
The White House said that would be an issue to be worked out between the parties.
Powell will visit Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia during his May 9-16 trip. He will also make stops in Russia, Bulgaria and Germany.
"This president is determined to take every step the United States can make to help this one (peace effort) to be successful," Fleischer said. "There are no guarantees. It is the Middle East.
"What can be guaranteed is that this president will put his shoulder to the wheel to try to make it happen."
Concerted effort on tackling Middle East peace has been a theme of late in the White House, with the subject repeatedly coming up in descriptions of the president's meetings with Iraq war allies, such as Denmark, Qatar and Spain, all of which have pledged assistance.
Following his commencement address at the University of South Carolina, the president will fly to Santa Fe, New Mexico, for the weekend before giving a series of speeches on the economy in New Mexico, Nebraska and Indiana.
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