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Israel may postpone West Bank pullback

JERUSALEM: Israel said on Saturday it might postpone a promised transfer of Israeli-occupied West Bank land to Palestinian rule that had been slated to take place next week.

"It is unlikely a redeployment will take place on Thursday because the government and the prime minister have to make a decision on it," senior Israeli negotiator Oded Eran told Reuters. He gave no further details.

Israeli diplomatic sources said the withdrawal had been deferred until Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak returned from the United States where he is due to hold a third round of peace talks with Syria. Barak has no fixed return date.

"This is a violation of the agreement and an attempt to harm Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's visit to Washington," Arafat's adviser Nabil Abu Rdainah told Reuters.

Israel had been due to withdraw from a further 6.1 percent of West Bank land on January 20 following a pullout from five percent on January 5 and 6 as part of a September interim peace deal signed with the Palestinians in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

A first withdrawal took place in September.

Differences with the Palestinians still exist over their request that Israel withdraw from areas close to Jerusalem, the Israeli diplomatic sources said.

They added that the Palestinians had agreed under the September deal that any item could be postponed for three weeks and not be considered a violation of the deal.

Israel regards Jerusalem as its "united and eternal capital" and says it will not cede any part of it.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Palestinian officials said on Saturday that Arafat would present U.S. President Bill Clinton with an outline for a final peace with Israel and would also meet Barak in Washington on January 20. Arafat and Barak last met on December 21.

Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara are due to return to the United States on Wednesday for a third round of U.S.-brokered peace talks after last week's discussions in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, ended inconclusively.

The renewal of peace talks between Israel and Syria in December after a break of nearly four years has raised concerns among Palestinians that Israel has dropped the Palestinian track.

The last handover, the second of a three-stage withdrawal, was delayed by a row between Israel and Palestinians over which areas should be included.

Under peace deals signed since 1993, Palestinians already have self-rule in parts of the West Bank and Gaza which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war.

The additional 6.1 percent will leave Palestinians in full or partial control of 40 percent of the West Bank.-Reuters