RAMALLAH, West Bank — President Bush arrived at Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' headquarters today for his first-ever visit to the Palestinian territories, saying he won't be shy about pushing Palestinians and Israelis to make uncomfortable choices in the race for a peace pact before he leaves office.

Abbas greeted Bush as he emerged from his car in the walled compound. The two men walked side by side along a red carpet, flanked by Palestinian security in olive-and-gold uniforms. Bush, who smiled and chuckled as he climbed out of his limousine to shake hands with Abbas, says he is offering no new proposals for resolving disputes over land rights and terrorist attacks.

In an unprecedented security operation, Palestinian police sealed off streets and erected checkpoints in large parts of this West Bank city during the president's visit. Residents in nearby buildings were told to stay away from windows and balconies, and Palestinian security officials said U.S. snipers were being deployed in the area.

After arriving in Israel yesterday, Bush was spending much of today in the West Bank, including a pilgrimage to Jesus' traditional birth grotto in biblical Bethlehem. Abbas' headquarters were repainted and had its helipad repaved ahead of the meeting. Heavy fog, however, forced Bush to travel from Jerusalem to the West Bank city of Ramallah by car, a 30-minute trip.

Even though it's Bush's first trip to the region as president, it generated little excitement among Palestinians, who are largely skeptical of his promises to try to move along Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The U.S. is perceived in the Palestinian areas as a staunch ally of Israel, at the expense of the Palestinians.

On his first presidential trip to the West Bank, Bush has appeared sympathetic to Israel's concerns that Palestinians cannot control militants in their midst. Yesterday, a rocket attack on a southern Israeli town damaged homes and led to an Israeli reprisal, and Bush said he would confront Abbas about the violence when he meets with him.

Bush planned separate meetings with senior Israeli and Palestinian leaders — a sign there is little good news to report so far. He scheduled a trip to the West Bank, the Palestinian territory controlled by Israel that is the seat of Abbas' government and the land that would form most of an eventual independent Palestinian state.

"As to the rockets, my first question to President Abbas is going to be: 'What are you going to do about them?' " Bush said yesterday. "He knows it's not in his interest to have people launching rockets from a part of his territory into Israel," and that the violence complicates the goal shared with Israel and the United States to establish an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

"You can't expect the Israelis, and I certainly don't, to accept a state on their border which would be a launching pad for terrorist activities," Bush said after lengthy meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.