Sharon, who is running for prime minister in the Feb. 6 elections, was answering a question on his likely relations with the next U.S. administration that some have speculated would be cooler than those with the present Clinton administration. Relations with the previous administration, of the president-elect's father, had been cool at times.
Sharon said he had met the designated national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, who had been to Israel.
He said that several days ago the president-elect phoned and recalled a tour in which Sharon had taken him to the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, where Sharon discussed Israel's security problems.
Sharon surmised that "as far as I am concerned, the door [at the White House] is open," he told Channel 1 TV.
He said Israel must, however, repair the "ruins of Israel's relations with the U.S. Congress. This is something that was destroyed during Barak's days, I assume out of lack of experience." Ehud Barak, of the Labor Party, is running for re-election as prime minister.
Sharon said Israel must also "strengthen and rebuild" its ties with U.S. Jewry. He said it must "consider U.S. Jews as a strategic asset of the first degree."
Because of the traditional friendly relations, the relations with the Bush administration "will definitely be good and I shall definitely maintain these ties," he said.
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