Israel has identified 28 unauthorised West Bank settler outposts that must be torn down under the road map peace plan, security sources have revealed.
Critics said that is fewer than half the actual number Israel is required to dismantle.
The list was disclosed a day after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told a convention of his hawkish party that even some of the larger veteran settlements would have to be dismantled under a peace accord or moved as part of a proposed unilateral plan to disengage from the Palestinians.
The shift in the thinking of Sharon underscored the effect on Israel of more than three years of Mideast violence coupled with the US push to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The road map plan requires Israel to remove all outposts erected since March 2001. The Peace Now watchdog group says there are at least 60 of them. Several dozen others established earlier are not addressed by the road map.
The 28 outposts identified by the Israeli Defence Ministry include 18 inhabited communities housing about 400 settlers, security sources said . The largest is Migron, home to 43 families.
PA