Israel's Olmert says West Bank plan unpreventable

PARIS, June 14 (Reuters) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today said that plans to set Israel's borders unilaterally were irreversible, but he still hoped to negotiate a border deal with Palestinians.

Olmert is visiting France and Britain to promote his ''realignment plan'' under which dozens of Jewish settlements in the West Bank would be removed and others annexed behind a fortified border on land the Palestinians say is theirs.

''The realignment plan is unstoppable. It is unpreventable. It will be implemented,'' Olmert told reporters after his first meeting with French President Jacques Chirac.

''I hope it can be carried out within the framework of talks, but it will be carried out with or without talks,'' he said of the plan that would involve Israel taking chunks of land where Palestinians want a state.

Britain and France have stressed the need for a negotiated deal rather than a unilateral move.

Olmert did not say whether Chirac had softened his stance toward the West Bank project, but added: ''Recognition of the unpreventability of the realignment plan has been enhanced.'' The Europeans are among the patrons of a peace ''road map'' and in the past have opposed Israeli unilateralism. Palestinians fear Olmert's plan will deprive them of viable statehood in the West Bank. Israel quit Gaza last year.

PRECONDITIONS Olmert said bringing about negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority was ''central to our national agenda'', but he ruled out talks as long as the new Palestinian government under Hamas Islamists refuses to renounce violence, accept past peace accords, and recognise Israel.

An Israeli official quoted Chirac as telling Olmert: ''These conditions are not subject to negotiation and no one should have any doubt about this''.

Hamas has so far rejected the trio of preconditions.

Having received US President George W Bush's praise for the realignment plan, Olmert has voiced hope European views could change.

''I sense a new spirit in Europe,'' he told reporters after London talks earlier this week with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. ''These things are not achieved through public statements, but measure by measure and over time.'' Hamas abandoned a 16-month truce over the weekend after seven Palestinian beachgoers died during an Israeli artillery barrage against areas of Gaza used by Palestinians for cross-border rocket launches. Israel denied responsibility.

As top European Union powers, Britain and France have played supporting roles in navigating a tattered ''road map'' to ending a more than 5-year-old Palestinian revolt. They have also led Western bids to curb Iran's atomic ambitions through diplomacy.

Yet many Israelis see the Europeans as less reliable Middle East powerbrokers than their US ally, a view bolstered by reports of anti-Semitism among Europe's growing Muslim minority.

Olmert's predecessor, Ariel Sharon, strained Franco-Israeli ties in 2004 by calling on French Jews to flee ''the wildest anti-Semitism'' in their native land.

Israel has since gone out of its way to praise French crackdowns on such hate crimes.

Reuters SY GC2144