Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon has rejected any talk of dismantling Jewish settlements in the near future despite US calls for gestures to advance a new peace plan.
His remarks in a published interview underlined his coalition's objections to the peace "road map" as he prepared for talks with the new reformist Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas later this week and US President Mr George W. Bush on May 20th.
It was Mr Sharon's second rebuff to US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell's overtures for confidence-building measures made at weekend talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Israel eased a travel ban on Palestinians on Sunday in a move it touted as a humanitarian gesture in response to the appeals, only to seal off the Gaza Strip again yesterday.
The road map, endorsed by the new Palestinian government of Mr Abbas, envisages Israel curbing settlement expansion in the West Bank and Gaza and Palestinians disarming militant groups to pave the way for Palestinian statehood by 2005.
Mr Sharon has indicated he would accept a Palestinian state that falls far short of Palestinian aspirations for all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Mr Sharon, a longtime patron of settlers on land Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war, told the Jerusalem Postthat all Israeli governments had pursued settlements in some form in the past, even during periods of peace diplomacy. "In my mind this is not an issue on the horizon right now," he said.
Mr Sharon rejected easing a military clampdown on West Bank towns, a step Palestinians say would give them leverage to rein in militants waging a 31-month-old uprising for independence.
Israel did agreed, however, to free 180 of some 5,000 detainees and let in 25,000 banned Palestinian workers. Palestinians dismissed the gestures as cosmetic.
AFP