NEW ORLEANS — Hello from the fourth annual North American summit, or as some like to call it, the conspiracy to form a North American Union.

The president doesn't arrive for another two hours, so in the absence of news, I'll mention a few things of interest and then get to his schedule.

Sounds like there's some messaging going on among the Palestinians and their backers.

Reports this morning say that Hamas leaders told former President Jimmy Carter they'd accept a peace deal negotiated by Mahmoud Abbas if the Palestinian people approve it in a referendum.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Geit said the same thing on Friday, speaking to about a hundred folks at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Geit said that if the Palestinian people approved an agreement, "pressure would build up on Hamas."

Of course, Hamas and the Egyptians may be betting on the fact that the same folks who voted for Hamas in free elections aren't going to go soft anytime soon on peace agreement terms.

Secondly, since we're at a summit here in the Big Easy, now's as good a time as any to mention a fascinating nugget from President Bush's last summit, the NATO gathering in Bucharest, Romania earlier this month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly lost his temper with Mr. Bush during his one-day visit to the NATO summit, during a discussion over U.S. support for Ukraine's ambition to join NATO.

This from the Economist's April 10 issue:

According to a Russian newspaper report, Mr. Putin lost his temper with Mr Bush at a meeting on the final day of the Bucharest summit, telling him: "Do you understand, George, that Ukraine is not even a state." Claiming that most of Ukraine's territory was "given away" by Russia, Mr. Putin supposedly also said that if the country joined NATO it would "cease to exist." A Kremlin spokesman at the meeting says he did not hear the exchange.

Of course, the very next day Mr. Putin and Mr. Bush were standing next to the Black Sea at Mr. Putin's summer resort in Sochi, Russia, watching the sun set, and then heading to a dinner where they danced with a Russian troupe.

And now to Mr. Bush's schedule during the next two days in New Orleans.

The president's first public event is 12:45 p.m. (1:45 EDT) remarks at the opening of a new Mexican consulate here in New Orleans. Mr. Bush meets at his hotel with Mexican President Felipe Calderon an hour later, and then just after 3 p.m., he'll meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

This evening, Mr. Bush will make a 30-minute appearance at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce reception before heading to a 7:30 dinner with Mr. Calderon and Mr. Harper at a New Orleans restaurant that has not yet been publicly disclosed.

Tomorrow, there are more meetings with the leaders and with a group of 30 CEO's from the U.S., Mexico and Canada, who were grafted into these summit proceedings in 2006. Then the three leaders will hold an 11:35 a.m. press conference (12:35 p.m. EDT).

The summit is then officially over, and Mr. Bush will then head to a tree-planting ceremony in honor of Earth Day, a 1 p.m. meeting with community leaders, and then finally a fundraiser in Baton Rouge for state treasurer John Kennedy, who is running this fall for the U.S. Senate against Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu.

The White House also just announced that King Abdullah of Jordan will visit Mr. Bush at the White House Wednesday.

— Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times