Israel ‘to draw borders by 2008’

ACTING Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hopes to complete his plan to withdraw from much of the West Bank and draw the country’s final borders before the US presidential election in 2008, an Israeli newspaper reported yesterday.

Mr Olmert, whose Kadima Party won last month’s parliamentary election, had previously said he aimed to complete his plan by the end of his term in 2010. But Yoram Turbowicz, who is slated to be Mr Olmert’s chief of staff, said it needed to be finished while US President George W Bush remained in office, according to the Yediot Ahronot newspaper.

Mr Olmert has said he wants international legitimacy for the borders he plans to draw, and his allies believe that Mr Bush, who has indicated Israel will likely keep large settlement blocs under any final peace deal, would be amenable to his programme.