Bowing to White House pressure, Israel intends to wait until after the US presidential election in November before uprooting Jewish settlements from Gaza, Israeli security sources have said.
The sources said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recognised the Bush administration's concern that implementing his unilateral pullout plan during the US campaign could cause political problems by fuelling instability in Palestinian areas.
Battered by multiple scandals, Sharon suffered a fresh blow when an opinion poll showed for the first time that a majority of Israelis want him to resign. A Sharon confidant blamed his troubles on far-right politicians opposed to a Gaza pull-out.
The Israeli daily Maariv reported that US officials had made clear in recent high-level talks in Washington that they wanted Sharon to hold off until after the US election on his plan to evacuate most settlements in Gaza.
The right-wing prime minister has been vague on the timetable for the initiative, which also calls for removing several West Bank enclaves and then drawing a "security line".
He has vowed to implement the plan if a US-backed "road map" to peace with the Palestinians remains stalled.
Palestinians fear that by pursuing disengagement Israel may hope to trade Gaza for permanent control of large parts of the West Bank with much larger settlements, effectively depriving the Palestinians of land they want for their own state.
Ahead of a trip to Washington next week, Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz met Sharon on Thursday and was briefed on the "understandings" reached with the White House, Maariv reported.
"The Americans don't want chaos in the Palestinian territories before the election," the Israeli source said.