Olmert to draw Israel final borders by 2010-report

Jerusalem, Mar 9: Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will draw Israel's permanent borders by 2010 either via a treaty with the Palestinians or through unilateral pullouts in the occupied West Bank, the Jerusalem Post said today (Mar 9, 2006).

The newspaper quoted Olmert as saying in an interview that he intended within the next four years to ''get to Israel's permanent borders, whereby we will completely separate from the majority of the Palestinian population''.

Olmert's Kadima party, the frontrunner for a March 28 general election, is expected to head Israel's next coalition government.

Olmert told the newspaper he would give a Palestinian Authority led by the militant Islamist group Hamas a ''reasonable'' amount of time to recognise Israel, disavow terrorism, disarm and embrace interim peace agreements.

Hamas is forming a government after sweeping Palestinian parliamentary elections on January 25.

''We will wait, but I don't intend to wait forever,'' the newspaper quoted Olmert as saying in excerpts of an interview that will be published in full tomorrow.

''If after a reasonable time passes it becomes clear that the Palestinian Authority is not willing to accept these principles, we will need to begin to act,'' it quoted him as saying.

Israel says it will not negotiate with Hamas, which is sworn to the Jewish state's destruction and has carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings against Israelis since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000.

The final borders would be set following an internal dialogue in Israel and consultations with the international community, the newspaper quoted Olmert as saying.

Olmert, who has headed Kadima since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was incapacitated by a January 4 stroke, has hinted he would evacuate isolated West Bank settlements while cementing Israel's hold on major settlement blocs.

A top security adviser to Olmert, Avi Dichter, said earlier this week a Kadima-led government could unilaterally evacuate such isolated settlements over the next four years if peace efforts remained frozen.

Under Dichter's plan, the settlers would be relocated to large settlement blocs such as Maale Adumim near Jerusalem which Israel would seek to include within its permanent borders.

REUTERS