Sharon says Gaza settlements could go

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has told ministers ahead of a major policy speech that Israel must be ready to quit Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, senior political sources said yesterday.

Mr Sharon, for decades the champion of the settler movement, has been firming up hints that Israel will have to leave parts of Gaza and the West Bank whatever the fate of a struggling US-backed plan for peace with the Palestinians.

Egyptian truce-mediators returned to Gaza yesterday for talks with Palestinian factions who rejected a ceasefire widely seen as crucial to the "road map", but Israel ruled out joining any truce as the militant groups demand.

Raising further doubt over whether Washington's favoured plan could work, the political sources said Mr Sharon had forecast the Palestinian government would last only six months and then Israel would have to act alone.