Building plan angers Palestinians

JERUSALEM - Israel plans to build thousands of new homes in the occupied West Bank to cement its hold on Jerusalem, Government sources said, drawing a Palestinian warning that peace efforts were at risk.

The blueprint for two new neighbourhoods linking the Jewish settlement of Maaleh Adumim to Arab East Jerusalem appeared to flout a United States-backed peace roadmap the final vision of which is disputed by Israel and the Palestinians. The roadmap requires a halt to settlement-building on land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians want as part of a future state.

But US President George W. Bush said last year that Israel, which intends to quit the occupied Gaza Strip this year, could expect to keep some West Bank settlement blocs under an accord.

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last week approved the construction of 3500 new homes to secure "Greater Jerusalem", which Israel calls its undivided capital in a move not recognised internationally.

Government sources confirmed the report - apart from the number of homes.

One source said the figure would be in the "low thousands "and that Sharon had also ordered the building of a road to bypass the area and link the Palestinian-ruled cities to the north and south of Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem.

"The Prime Minister is thinking ahead, to giving the Palestinians territorial contiguity," the source said.

But the Palestinians, whose President Mahmoud Abbas joined Sharon last month in declaring a ceasefire and who wants East Jerusalem for a capital, accused the Jewish state of poor faith in peacemaking.

"By expanding settlements in the West Bank, Israel gives the impression that it intends to exchange Gaza for a 'Greater Israel'," said Palestinian Planning Minister Ghassan al-Khatib.

"Israel is responsible for any consequences resulting from this continuous violation of the roadmap," he said. "I don't think the Palestinian leadership and people can tolerate this."

As part of the Abbas-Sharon ceasefire, Israel agreed to give security control of five West Bank cities to the Palestinians.

The handovers were seen as a gesture to Abbas after he won a commitment from Palestinian militants to extend a de facto truce until the end of this year - although it fell far short of the roadmap's demand that the factions be disarmed.

The first city, Jericho, was handed over last week. But a snag in security arrangements held up the transfer of the second city, Tulkarm, which was expected today.

Israel refused to give Palestinians control of several villages near Tulkarm that were under their jurisdiction before a 4 1/2-year-old Palestinian uprising began.

Israeli security sources said two of the villages were launch-pads for a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed five people at a Tel Aviv nightclub last month.

- REUTERS