Sharon to evacuate all Gaza settlers

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ariel Sharon intends to evacuate all Jewish settlers from Gaza, his deputy said yesterday. The move hardens a pledge to pursue a landmark withdrawal plan rejected by his own Likud party.

Amid discord in Israel over Mr Sharon's "disengagement" plan, US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice will meet Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia in Berlin in mid-May for what would be his highest-level talks with US officials.

Mr Qureia confirmed the meeting, saying he wanted Washington to push Israel to implement a stalled "road map" peace plan.

Mr Sharon has said that the Palestinian authorities' failure to halt suicide bombings against Israel over the past three years have shown Israel has no peace partner.

But a Rice-Qureia meeting could lead to greater US pressure on Sharon to hold his first talks with the moderate Mr Qureia.

Israeli vice premier Ehud Olmert, asked by army radio if Mr Sharon still intended to evacuate all 21 Gaza settlements after Likud members overwhelmingly rejected the go-it-alone proposal in a referendum on Sunday, said: "correct".

Analysts say a partial pullout would not relieve Israel of attacks on settlers and costly troop deployments to protect their isolated enclaves.

On Israel's northern border, an Israeli soldier was killed and five wounded in clashes with Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas in the disputed Shebaa Farms area.

It was the first Israeli death in fighting with Hizbollah since January. The group rejects a UN assertion that Israel's 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon was complete.

Mr Olmert's radio interview gave more bite to Mr Sharon's vow on Thursday to move forward with a virtually unchanged US- backed Gaza withdrawal plan despite the Likud vote.

Mr Sharon's aides had suggested he may water down the proposal, evacuating only a few settlements, and in stages. Some 7,500 settlers live among 1.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, captured in the 1967 Middle East war.