Sharon - Israel not following 'road map' plan

JERUSALEM -- Israel is not following the "road map," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview published Wednesday, acknowledging he is casting aside the U.S.-backed peace plan for now, even as Washington insists it is still valid.

But Israel's ambassador to Washington later said Sharon's plan of "unilateral disengagement" from the Palestinians -- a withdrawal from Gaza and four West Bank settlements in 2005 -- is a way of "jump-starting the road map in the future, and that is our policy."

In violence Wednesday, 10 Palestinians were killed in two confrontations with Israeli troops, the highest single-day death toll in the West Bank since 2002. Among those killed were at least seven armed fugitives and an 11-year-old girl.

New Year fighting

The fighting came at the start of the Jewish New Year, and Israeli troops enforced a tight holiday closure of the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians will be barred from Israel at least through the end of the month.

In an interview with the Yediot Ahronot daily, Sharon outlined his long-term vision for the region, saying that after the withdrawal, "it is very possible ... there will be a long period when nothing else happens."

Sharon said that as long as there is no significant shift in the Palestinian leadership and policy, "Israel will continue its war on terrorism, and will stay in the territories that will remain after the implementation of disengagement."

The road map was adopted by Israel and the Palestinians last year but never got off the ground, with both sides failing to meet even initial obligations. The plan envisioned a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza by 2005, and said the borders should be determined in negotiations.

President Bush has since said it would be "unrealistic" to expect Israel to remove large Israeli population centers in the West Bank -- a statement seen by Sharon as backing for his plan to keep large West Bank settlement blocs in any future deal with the Palestinians.

Sharon said he will abide by his disengagement plan, not the road map.

Asked by Yediot how disengagement differs from a proposal by a former Israeli opposition leader, Amram Mitzna, to withdraw from Gaza to break the stalemate with the Palestinians, Sharon said: "Mitzna suggested something different ... to continue dismantling settlements based on the road map.

"This would have brought Israel to a most difficult situation. I didn't agree to this. Today, we are also not following the road map. I am not ready for this," he said.

The White House insisted Wednesday that Sharon is committed to the U.S.-backed peace plan, with Bush press secretary Scott McClellan discounting media accounts of Sharon's comments.

"I don't think that accurately reflected what he was saying," McClellan said. "Prime Minister Sharon has reaffirmed his commitment to moving forward on his bold proposal to move out of the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. That is a proposal that can help get us jump-started again on the road map, which is the path toward the president's two-state solution."

In Washington, Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon also said Israel is committed to the road map as the only way to achieve peace.

Ayalon also said in a statement: "Unfortunately, currently there is no Palestinian partner, and the road map calls for a series of actions on both sides, dismantling of terrorist infrastructure, fighting terrorism and instituting reform."

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said Sharon confirmed Palestinian fears that the disengagement plan is a ploy to cement Israel's control over large areas of the West Bank. U.S. and European Union officials have told the Palestinians that they would only back disengagement as part of the road map.

According to polls published Wednesday in Yediot and Maariv dailies, 58 percent of Israelis support Sharon's disengagement plan, and about one-third oppose it. Both surveys had margins of error of 4.4 percentage points.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, troops surrounded a building where fugitives were holed up, and a gun battle erupted, Palestinian witnesses said. Five armed men from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group with ties to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, were killed in the fighting.

An 11-year-old girl living nearby was also shot dead, her family said. The girl's uncle said the girl was shot toward the end of the fighting, after most of the soldiers had left and residents were emerging from their homes.

The Israeli brigade commander in the area, identified only as Col. Yuval, said his forces did not fire as they withdrew, even when coming under Palestinian fire, suggesting that the girl was not killed by his men.

In the West Bank town of Jenin, Israeli undercover troops killed four Palestinians in a raid of a car repair shop. The army said six fugitives were in the building, armed with assault rifles and pistols. It said four of the fugitives were killed and two arrested. The wanted men did not fire on the soldiers, the army said.

Palestinians said one of those killed was an Al Aqsa fugitive, and the three others were bystanders.