US President George W. Bush met yesterday with the sons of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, an old ally who has been in a coma since suffering a stroke two years ago.

"It was a small tribute to pay to a great man and a good friend, a comrade in arms, a tribute from one cowboy to another," Raanan Gissin, a former Sharon advisor, said about Bush's decision to see Omri and Gilad Sharon.

The brothers met Bush at the Jerusalem hotel where the president has been staying during a three-day visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank.