Israel's Sharon plans settlement removal

9.30am

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans to remove some Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by the summer of 2004 to make way for a Palestinian state, Israel's Channel 2 television said on Friday.

Israeli and Palestinian officials were not immediately available for comment, but a source in Sharon's office said: "There is such talk, but for now it only concerns settlements in Gaza. A lot could happen by next summer."

The decision would mark Sharon's most significant move towards implementing a US-backed "road map" to peace and Palestinian statehood -- and away from his traditionally unswerving support for settlements in the occupied territories.

"Sharon is once again poring over maps and planning. Where will the settlers go? To the Negev," Channel 2 political correspondent Amnon Avrahamovitch said, referring to Israel's largely unpopulated southern desert.

Avrahamovitch, a respected correspondent on Israel's leading weekly news programme, did not specify how many settlements were slated for removal.

The report came shortly after Israeli political sources said Sharon was planning a package of conciliatory moves towards Palestinians to quell domestic dissent over his hardline policies and bolster new Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie.

Sharon -- who has insisted tough measures are needed in Palestinian areas to stop suicide bombers -- hinted at his new plan on Thursday when he told a business conference in Tel Aviv: "We do not rule out unilateral steps (toward the Palestinians)."

While Sharon retains strong public support after his sweeping re-election in January, he has seen erosion of his approval ratings amid recent criticism of his failure to chart a path out of a three-year-old Palestinian uprising.

Israel also came under unusually sharp criticism this week from US President George W. Bush for a barrier it is building in the West Bank. Washington may penalise the Jewish state over the barrier by trimming its US$9 billion ($14.17 billion) in loan guarantees.

Facing growing pressure at home and abroad to help revive the "road map", Sharon intends to unveil his initiative around the time of a summit expected in coming days with Qurie, the government sources said.

"Sharon doesn't like the diplomatic vacuum that has developed so he wants to change the situation," a source said.

He offered no specifics, and a Sharon confidant said the right-wing leader had even withheld details from close advisers.

The confidant said new steps might include "humanitarian" easing of Israel's military blockade of Palestinian areas, an army pullback from one or more West Bank cities and renewed dismantling of unauthorised Jewish settler outposts.

Haaretz newspaper said Sharon and his aides had concluded that Israel "could take numerous actions in the territories that would make the situation more like it was before (the Palestinian uprising) and thereby lift the public's hopes without incurring a major political risk".

Though Palestinians have cast doubt on the sincerity of such Israeli promises -- and media reports -- in the past, they have indicated that genuine moves could help Qurie and Egyptian mediators persuade militant groups to halt attacks on Israelis.

Sharon and Qurie are expected to meet as early as next week for the first time since the new Palestinian government was installed on November 12.

Qurie hopes to win Israeli agreement to a truce and move beyond a unilateral ceasefire that militants declared in June and which collapsed in a spate of violence two months later.

- REUTERS