Israel will co-ordinate Palestine withdrawal with US

Israel will co-ordinate its unilateral “disengagement plan” in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with the United States, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said today.

Addressing US concerns, Sharon said he did not believe Israel would undermine the US-backed “road map” peace plan by redeploying troops and imposing a boundary on the Palestinians in the West Bank.

The “road map” plan mandates negotiations instead of unilateral moves, but an aide said there was no contradiction.

Sharon has said he would remove up to 17 of 21 settlements in Gaza and several more in the West Bank, if there is no progress in coming months in implementing the road map, which envisages a Palestinian state by 2005, with the terms agreed upon in negotiations.

Speaking to visiting American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, Sharon said: “The steps that Israel will take in a disengagement plan will be fully coordinated with the United States.”

Sharon accused the Palestinians of having done nothing to move forward, and said they could have won much more land in negotiations than as a result of his unilateral measures.

However, Sharon said, “the steps that will be taken (by Israel) will not prevent the possibility of … an agreed settlement if and when there is a reliable partner on the Palestinian side”.

US Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer said serious talks with a credible Palestinian partner were preferable, but “the United States agrees with Israel that until now the Palestinians have not met that test”.

Palestinian officials have said they would welcome any dismantling of settlements, but suspect Israel is avoiding negotiations to try to keep large parts of the West Bank.

In violence last night, Israeli soldiers fired on four armed Palestinians approaching a border fence near a crossing point between Gaza and Israel, hitting two, the military said.

The military found the two bodies today and said one was armed with a rifle, ammunition and two grenades. No weapons were found on the second body, the army said.