A far-right Israeli minister has proposed to carve Palestinian territory into isolated cantons as an alternative to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon 's plan to uproot Jewish settlements.
The Palestinian Authority immediately dismissed the idea as a plot by the "extremist Israeli right" to block creation of a Palestinian state as envisioned in a US-backed peace plan.
In a fresh challenge to Mr Sharon 's "disengagement" plan among his pro-settler coalition partners, Transport Minister Avigdor Lieberman sent letters to 10 of 21 cabinet members asking them to help him draft his initiative.
An aide to Mr Lieberman said the proposal called for leaving settlements untouched and instead partitioning the West Bank and Gaza Strip into several Palestinian districts, or cantons, with civil self-government but still under Israeli military control.
Mr Lieberman's initiative was a sign of opposition to Sharon 's plan, announced earlier this month, to remove some Israeli settlements in Gaza under go-it-alone moves he has threatened to impose should peace efforts remain stalled.
Mr Sharon 's proposal would also mean evacuating several West Bank enclaves and drawing a "security line" around the rest, leaving Palestinians with less land than they seek for a state.
Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Middle-East war. Most of the international community regards settlements on occupied land as illegal. Israel disputes this.