Israeli political sources have claimed the US will give the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, a written pledge promising that Israel will not have to give up the entire West Bank in any future peace deal with Palestinians.
American sources in Washington said "understandings" had been reached with Israel on key aspects of Sharon's plan for a unilateral pullout from Gaza after officials close to him said he expected approval to retain parts of the West Bank.
"I hope this visit will be successful and allow Israel to make gains on all fronts," Sharon told reporters today.
The Israeli sources said Washington's assurance would come in a letter that President George W. Bush will hand Sharon on Wednesday at White House talks expected to give the US green light for Israel to unilaterally "disengage" from Palestinians.
Sources in Sharon's office said Bush would make clear he does not expect Israel to quit all the West Bank under any deal.
"I do not know the exact wording. But it will definitely contain an insistence that Israel will not return to the 1967 border," said a source, referring to the expected letter.
Palestinians reacted with horror to the news story.
"This is the worst American political position since 1967. We will reject it," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's ruling executive committee.
"It replaces the road map with the Sharon plan."
The Palestinians want a return of the entire West Bank and Gaza, seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, for a viable state they hope to establish under a US-backed peace "road map".
Palestinians say Sharon's unilateral steps contradict the road map's vision of reciprocal moves towards a stable peace.
Sharon has said that more than three years of violence has shown that Israel has no real Palestinian peace partner.
The Israeli source said the Bush letter would also challenge the demand by Palestinians forced from their homes in the 1948 war of Israel 's creation to return to lands now claimed by the Jewish state, saying
refugees could be resettled in a future Palestinian state.