Sharon want to avoid confrontation with U.S.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, April 16 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – After U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell insisted Tuesday, April 15, that Washington would publish the roadmap peace plan unchanged, senior Israeli officials expressed readiness to accommodate their demands for change to the plan.

Determined to avoid confrontation with their main U.S. ally, Israeli officials said Wednesday, April 16, they hoped Washington would take into account Israeli reservations on the plan, drawn up by the European Union, Russia, United Nations and United States.

"Of course we would have preferred for the text to be changed before its publication. But the main thing is its implementation," said Zalman Shoval, foreign affairs advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"We have every reason to believe that the United States will take into consideration the remarks we have made," he added.

Israel wants to avoid any immediate pullback from Palestinian territories or a freeze on Jewish settlement growth in the occupied areas, as set out in the plan.

Israeli public television said Sharon's special envoy in Washington has obtained a U.S. agreement on the point.

But a foreign ministry official said, on condition of anonymity, "we are not expecting Washington to change the roadmap before its publication."

Israel had proposed more than 100 amendments to the "roadmap" peace plan which calls for a Palestinian state to be created alongside a secure Israel by 2005.

The Jewish state wants all Palestinian resistance attacks to cease and for strict conditions to be imposed on Palestinian compliance with each stage of the phased plan before moving on to the next step to Palestinian statehood.

European states, Arab countries and Palestinians have repeatedly pressed for the implementation of the phased peace plan without any changes.

On the ground, Israeli occupation forces gunned down a Hamas activist near the West Bank town of al-Khalil (Hebron) and completely sealed off the Palestinian territories for fear of attacks during the Passover holidays, one day after three Palestinians and three Israelis killed in a fresh spate of violence.