West Bank wall warning to Palestinians

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed yesterday to take unilateral steps within months to separate Israelis from Palestinians if a US-backed peace blueprint failed.

Sharon said Israel would speed up construction of a barrier through the West Bank, redeploy troops and change the distribution of settlements to reduce the number of Israelis living near Palestinian population centres.

The steps would mean uprooting some settlements on occupied land, he said, but hardening Israel's hold elsewhere.

"If within a number of months the Palestinians will continue not carrying out their part of the roadmap, then Israel will initiate a unilateral security measure," Sharon told a national security conference in the coastal town of Herzliya.

Palestinians, who view the construction of what Israel calls a security barrier as a land grab, said the proposal was no formula for peace.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie said he was disappointed by Sharon's "threat" and urged him to negotiate. The United States, Israel's main ally, said it would oppose unilateral Israeli steps and urged Sharon to meet Qurie very soon.

Israel's Justice Minister said steps could start within three months if the Palestinians did not act.

Sharon warned Palestinians they would end up with less land if Israel acted alone than if they followed the roadmap. He said Palestinians had to "uproot terrorist groups" and bring an end to violence.

Sharon moved to quell US fears by saying anything the Jewish state did would be in close co-ordination with Washington.

He also pledged to keep Israel's commitments to the roadmap by removing settler outposts, freezing settlements and easing restrictions on Palestinian areas. He said Israel had no plan to redraw borders forever under the disengagement plan.

Sharon's moderate Palestinian counterpart said he was disappointed by Sharon's threats to Palestinians.

"If Mr Sharon is ready to start negotiations we can do it sooner than anybody can expect," Qurie said. Plans for a meeting have been in the pipeline for weeks.

Emphasising the unending cycle of violence, Israeli troops killed four Palestinian gunmen in one of the fiercest battles for months in the West Bank. Israel said its strike into Nablus was to thwart planned suicide bombings.

Palestinians have welcomed Sharon's hints at removing an unspecified number of isolated settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but not the likelihood this would mean a selective pullback leaving them with a truncated, shrunken state.

The roadmap calls for a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza by 2005 alongside a secure Israel.

Although Israel calls the barrier a bulwark against suicide bombers, it deviates from the boundary before the 1967 war to absorb settlements on occupied land.

"Unilateral steps can help the roadmap move forward if they are part of the roadmap ... or can block the roadmap. It depends on what they are," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

A period of relative quiet has increased Israeli public pressure on Sharon for a fresh political initiative. But it would face major obstacles.

On Wednesday, militant groups, many of them sworn to Israel's destruction, spurned the second attempt this month by Egyptian mediators to broker a ceasefire.

The spiritual leader of the Hamas movement, that has spearheaded a suicide-bombing campaign against Israelis, said Sharon's speech showed that he was not serious about peace.

"The speech is like a mountain that gave birth to a rat," Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said in the Gaza Strip after watching Sharon live on television.

- REUTERS