Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's pro-settler party will likely uproot some Jewish settlements as part of a go-it-alone peace scheme opposed by Washington, a key Israeli lawmaker said Wednesday.

A boy plays with an ammunition belt in his yard at the Jewish settlement of Kadim near the West Bank town of Jenin December 10, 2003.  [Reuters]

But bilateral talks could still resume with a meeting between Sharon and Palestinian counterpart Ahmed Qurie if terms are right, according to the foreign ministers of both sides. Palestinians fear Sharon's ideas -- put forward as a unilateral alternative if a U.S.-backed "road map" fails -- would leave them a shrunken, chopped-up state inside a barrier of wire and concrete that has been internationally condemned.

Sharon's right-wing Likud party, traditionally pro-settler, would be vital to push through any scheme. For decades Sharon, a general-turned-politician, has been a champion of the settlers.

Yuval Shteinitz, the hawkish head of parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said Sharon had outlined a "long-term redeployment" as an alternative to a peace deal and it was accepted by most Likud lawmakers.

"What Sharon suggests is not concessions but steps that will allow us to defend ourselves better," Shteinitz told Reuters. "I advise the Palestinians that it's better for them to go for a peace agreement."

In Rome, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and his Palestinian counterpart Nabil Shaath said they were working to arrange a Sharon-Qurie meeting but insisted it be well-prepared.

"We're willing to have this meeting immediately, but we believe we should discuss the issues through negotiations and not pre-conditions," Shalom said.

FIVE SETTLEMENTS IN SHARON'S SIGHTS

The mass-circulation Maariv daily said the "Sharon plan" would mean evacuating five smallish settlements by next summer.

A Tel Aviv university poll Wednesday showed about 60 percent of Israelis favored evacuating all settlements in the Gaza Strip and isolated settlements in the West Bank.

U.S. officials said any summary move to impose a peace arrangement would not work. "We don't consider that to be a viable solution...that would add to the security and safety of Israel," one official told reporters.

Signals that Israel is getting ready to impose its own arrangement have increased pressure on the Palestinians at a time of renewed interest in the road map, thanks to a spell of relative calm and a new Palestinian government.

Officials close to Sharon say his ideas are more than just a negotiating ploy ahead of a possible revival of talks on the U.S.-backed plan, which is meant to end a three-year-old uprising and lead to a Palestinian state by 2005.

Vice Premier Ehud Olmert also told Israel Radio Wednesday that he doubted it was possible to reach a peace agreement.

But an official of the Islamic Jihad militant group, which unlike the Palestinian Authority is sworn to Israel's destruction, said such unilateral moves could not bring peace.

"Sharon's plans must motivate all Palestinians to unite in order to challenge his aggressive intentions," Nafez Azzam said.

Speaking after unusually high-level talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Geneva, Shalom said Israel remained committed to the road map.

Qurie has said he will not meet Sharon unless Israel stops building a huge barrier through the West Bank. Israel says it is needed to stop suicide bombers who have killed 450 of its citizens. Palestinians call it an attempt to annex occupied land.

"The wall remains a major problem, at least, it needs to be part of the agenda," Shaath said in Rome.

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