Ariel Sharon assured US envoys on Thursday that Israel had not abandoned a US-backed peace "road map" but would prepare unilateral moves in case the violence-torn plan fails, the prime minister's office said.
Palestinians fear Sharon's go-it-alone proposal to scrap Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip could mask possible plans to strengthen Israel's hold on occupied enclaves in the West Bank and ultimately deny them a viable state.
"The prime minister reiterated and emphasised that Israel is committed to the vision of US President George W. Bush," it said in a statement, referring to a negotiated peace deal with the Palestinians.
"The prime minister also emphasised the road map is the only political plan acceptable to Israel," the statement said.
But it added "ideas were exchanged for the continued advancement of the disengagement plan" and that Sharon spelled out its "main concept", which he has defined as a conclusion by Israel that the road map no longer stood any chance of success.
Earlier, diplomatic sources said the three envoys - Elliot Abrams and Stephen Hadley, both national security advisers to Bush, and State Department official William Burns - intended to urge Sharon to stick as closely as possible to the road map.
Sharon's office said the three-hour meeting was held in "a very good atmosphere". A US official called the session productive but declined to give more details.
After the talks, the envoys met Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat and Prime Minister Ahmed Qorie's chief of staff at the US consulate in East Jerusalem.
"The solution should be bilateral and not unilateral," Erekat told Reuters earlier, referring to the road map and its charting of reciprocal steps leading to the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
He said Israel must withdraw from the West Bank, as well as remove settlers from Gaza, to make a Palestinian state and peace a reality.
"If not, then Gaza, which is a big jail for Palestinians with some settlers, will only be a big jail for Palestinians with fewer settlers," Erekat said.
Sharon, who has championed settlement construction on land captured in the 1967 Middle East war, shocked friend and foe alike earlier this month by announcing he had given orders to prepare to uproot as many as 17 of Israel's 21 Gaza enclaves.
Some 7,500 Israelis live amidst 1.3 million Palestinians in the area. Opinion polls show most Israelis support evacuating the heavily defended Gaza settlements, but pro-settler parties could quit the ruling coalition if the pullout goes through.
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