Israeli minister sees annexation of West Bank blocs

JERUSALEM - Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has received US approval for a future annexation of West Bank settlement blocs under a unilateral plan to disengage from the Palestinians.

Asked on Channel One television on Sunday whether the blocs would be under Israeli jurisdiction and whether US President George W Bush had given his approval during talks in Washington with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Netanyahu said: "De facto, yes".

Netanyahu did not specify which settlement blocs would be annexed or when the annexation would occur.

A source in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office dismissed the assertion as baseless. There was no immediate US comment.

An adviser to President Yasser Arafat called the news consistent with US policies the Palestinians see as overlooking their hope to found a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

At a landmark White House summit last Wednesday, Sharon won Bush's approval for a "disengagement plan" whereby Israel would remove all of its settlements in Gaza but only four of the 120 scattered in the West Bank. Bush hinted that any future border in the West Bank should be around the larger settlement blocs.

However, a source in Sharon's office said there was no explicit US agreement to Israel annexing the settlements, which the international community considers illegal. Israel disputes this.

"I know of no such undertaking in Washington," the source said.

Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rdainah, who described the Bush-Sharon agreement as the death knell for an internationally backed "road map" for ending 3-1/2 years of Middle East violence, voiced no surprise at Netanyahu's comment.

"This does not add anything new to Bush's statements last week," he said. "This will not lead to any successful negotiations on the final status and violates the road map and all signed agreements."

- REUTERS