Gaza pullout to be delayed until August

NOUAKCHOTT - Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said today a pull-out from the Gaza Strip will be delayed until August 15 and will take about six weeks, but a senior Israeli official said no final decision was made.

Israeli leaders have been widely expected to agree to the delay from July 20 in order to avoid a Jewish mourning period, but no decision has been announced officially.

"We are very close to the implementation of the disengagement plan. The implementation will start August 15. It was postponed by three weeks because of the Jewish holiday, " Shalom told reporters in Nouakchott while on a visit to Mauritania.

But a senior Israeli official said: "Israel has spoken about an inclination to do that but a final decision has not been made yet."

Army officers have previously spoken of carrying out the evacuation from all the Gaza settlements and four of 120 in the West Bank over three to four weeks.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suggested the postponement last month in what aides said was an effort to respect the mourning period and not aggravate religious settlers already furious over their impending evacuation from Gaza.

The withdrawal would for the first time uproot Jewish settlements from occupied land where Palestinians want a state and is seen by US-led mediators as a springboard to reviving a "road map" peace plan for the Middle East.

Postponement could give rightist Jewish settlers more time to mount resistance to the plan to evacuate them from occupied land that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Mauritania, where Shalom was on a one-day visit, is one of only three Arab League members to have diplomatic relations with Israel. The others are Egypt and Jordan.

- REUTERS