Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon gave the green light Tuesday to the construction of 1,000 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank in an apparent move to placate right-wing opponents of his Gaza pullout plan.
On the eve of a crunch vote among members of his Likud party on his ambition to bring the moderate Labour party into government, tenders were published for the new housing units in four of the largest West Bank settlements.
The publication came after new housing minister Tzipi Livni had "made the necessary inspections on the location of these homes," a source close to Sharon told AFP.
A total of 604 of the homes would be constructed in the Beitar Elite settlement close to Bethlehem, 214 in Ariel, 141 in Maale Adumim and 42 in Karnei Shomron.
Sharon had ordered the tenders frozen earlier in the month after US criticism over an apparent flouting of the terms of the roadmap peace plan which obliges Israel to halt all settlement activity in the occupied territories.
The premier needs to bring the main opposition Labour party into government in a bid to secure parliamentary backing for his so-called disengagement plan under which all 8,000 of the Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip will be evacuated by September 2005.
Sharon lost his parliamentary majority several months ago after traditional right-wing allies baulked at the prospect of such a pullout.
The disengagement plan has already been rejected by Likud members in a party ballot back in May but Sharon has ploughed ahead with his plan regardless.
However Likud rebels will again try to derail the project at a party convention in Tel Aviv on Wednesday when they vote on a motion against any move to bring Labour into government.
Although Sharon has made it clear he will not regard the motion as binding, such a defeat would be immensely damaging and could even lead to his downfall.
His prospects of victory were not helped when Likud bosses decided on Monday that the vote would take the form of a secret ballot, allowing his rivals a chance to trip him up without being caught red-handed.
The Sharon aide denied that the plans for the new settlement homes were linked to the Likud convention, but few were prepared to take him at his word.
"This is ugly manipulation, a political ploy and fraud with a view to the convening of the Likud convention," Pinhas Wallerstein, a leader of the Yesha settlers' council, told the Yediot Aharonot daily.
Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat said the construction of the new homes would "lead to the burying of the roadmap".
US embassy spokesman Paul Patin said Tuesday that an American delegation was expected to arrive next month to inspect the status of the outposts. Ambassador Dan Kurzer was understood to have voiced impatience Monday over the outposts in talks with a senior Israeli defence ministry official.
Meanwhile in events on the ground, a 10-year-old Palestinian boy was killed in the West Bank town of Nablus when he was shot in the chest by Israeli troops, medical sources said.
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