The Palestinian Authority has criticised Israel's decision to remove four unauthorised settlement outposts, saying the move was a publicity stunt that falls below the requirements of a US-backed peace "road map".
"I think the world is sick and tired of these public relations stunts - Israelis moving a caravan here and a caravan there," Palestinian Negotiating Minister Saeb Erekat told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Two members of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet said the Israeli government was moving too slowly in carrying out a commitment to remove dozens of unauthorised settlement outposts from occupied territory.
The ministers spoke on Israel Radio after Mr Sharon signed an order to accelerate the removal of the four outposts - only one of them inhabited - in accordance with the road map. A senior adviser to Mr Sharon said more would be dismantled in the future but gave no date.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat appealed to Israel's security concerns in denouncing the settlement expansion. "I ask the Israeli side to stop...this settlement assault that will not provide security for the Israelis, because the road to security is through the recognition of our rights," he said in remarks broadcast on Palestinian television and radio.
The road map, stalled by mutual violence, calls for Israel to dismantle all outposts built since March 2001 and freeze construction in 150 larger settlements on land captured from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 Middle East war.
Settlers have established an estimated 100 outposts without government permission in the West Bank. Some were set up at sites where Israelis had been killed in Palestinian attacks.