Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon is to visit Washington to seek US approval for his controversial plan to evacuate the Gaza Strip.
A senior Israeli source said Mr Sharon was considering four options for a withdrawal that is likely to be unilateral because the Israeli leader believes he has no Palestinian negotiating partner.
The options are to leave some Jewish settlements in northern Gaza; evacuate all settlements but keep a military presence on a border strip with Egypt; keep a military presence in Gaza; or remove all settlements and leave no civilian or military presence in the entire Gaza Strip.
"It looks as if it might be a full evacuation, but it is not agreed yet," the source said, referring to the fourth option.
Mr Sharon has publicly spoken only of evacuating most of the 7,500 Jewish settlers living in Gaza enclaves that are hard to defend and setting a new "security line" in the West Bank.
Israeli Foreign Minister Mr Silvan Shalom said Mr Sharon would visit Washington later this month. He said Israel remained committed to the US-backed "road map" for peace - but would pursue unilateral action, including construction of its controversial West Bank barrier, in the absence of talks with the Palestinians.
Israel says the project, now under scrutiny by the International Court of Justice, has already stopped suicide bombers from reaching its cities. Palestinians say the network of wire and concrete looping into the West Bank is a land grab designed to deny them a viable state.
Mr Shalom, visiting London after talks in Ireland, the current president of the European Union, said Israel would like to win international as well as US approval for its Gaza plan.
The senior Israeli source said US officials had told Israel that Washington would not oppose any unilateral removal of settlements if only because it had opposed them in principle since Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 war.