Israel sets talks with Egypt

Both Egypt, the key Arab intermediary in the conflict, and the United States, main sponsor of a "road map" peace plan, were likely to take issue with Israeli unilateralism as it could strip away territory Palestinians seek for an independent state.

Sharon told lawmakers yesterday he will move some Jewish settlements as part of an emerging plan for Israel to impose a border in the West Bank without negotiations with the Palestinians, a participant at the meeting said.

Palestinian officials said one-sided actions would never lead to peace and urged Israel to focus instead on returning to talks. The Palestinians worry that any plan carried out unilaterally by Israel would fall far short of their demands for a state in the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip, with a capital in Jerusalem.

Sharon's statement to members of parliament's Defense and Foreign Affairs committee appeared to be part of a campaign to prepare Israeli public opinion for an undefined West Bank pullback. Some reports said the move would include both removing some settlements and annexing some West Bank land.

Sharon, a key architect of the settler movement, has shied away previously from saying he would evacuate West Bank settlements, and his hard-line Likud Party has traditionally opposed giving up control of any of the West Bank, seized by Israel along with Gaza in the 1967 war.

Egypt wants Israel to cede all West Bank and Gaza territory seized in the 1967 Middle East war for a Palestinian state, and end chronic conflict with the Arab world as called for by a 2002 Saudi peace plan. Sharon rejected it on security grounds.

Israel's foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, was to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Geneva today to discuss how to revive the "road map" process with Palestinians, stymied by mutual violence and intransigence over issues like borders.

It would be the highest-level Israeli-Egyptian meeting since Sharon began his second term of office in March 2003.

Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, in 1979, followed by Jordan in 1994. But Israel's ties with Cairo have been generally strained over the years against the backdrop of Israel's intractable conflict with Palestinians. An aide to Shalom said Mubarak would be asked to send an ambassador back to Israel. Egypt withdrew its envoy in November 2000 to protest at Israel's crackdown on a Palestinian uprising that erupted after US-brokered peace negotiations focusing on Palestinian statehood collapsed earlier that year.

Egypt failed last week to mediate a deal between Palestinian militant factions to cease attacks on Israelis. A cease-fire is needed as a basis for serious negotiations on the "road map."

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.