U.S. Says Powell Demanded Pullout by Israeli Forces
As the Bush administration's special envoy arrived, senior officials in Washington said on Thursday that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had delivered a blunt private demand to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to withdraw from Palestinian-controlled areas to help American efforts to broker a cease-fire.

Mr. Sharon indeed announced on Thursday that his army would begin a staged withdrawal from Ramallah, the unofficial Palestinian capital in the West Bank. Thursday night and early today, there were reports of initial tank movements, but Israel Radio said a withdrawal would take hours.

In Washington, the State Department spokesman, Richard A. Boucher, responded to Mr. Sharon by saying, "We do expect a complete withdrawal from Palestinian-controlled areas, including Ramallah, and the other areas the Israeli Defense Force recently entered."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/15/international/middleeast/15MIDE.html