OCUPIED JERUSALEM, July 31 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Amidst amounting international criticism of the controversial issue, the occupation army announced Thursday, July 31, competition of the first section of the separation wall it started constructing a year ago in the West Bank.

The Israeli plan had come under fire from U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, while U.S. Secretary of State stressed Washington would continue to press Israel on the issue.

Chiding Israel over the so-called security fence, Annan stressed : "I know it's the conventional wisdom that fences make good neighbors, but that is if you build a fence on your own land and you don't disrupt your neighbor's life."

The 128-kilometer separation wall dips deep into occupied Palestinian territory at several points allegedly to protect Jewish settlements and leaves several Palestinian villages cut off from the rest of the West Bank.

The wall is also expected to cut annexed east Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank.

It will eventually snake some 900 kilometers (540 miles) along the West Bank and leave even larger swathes of its territory on the Israeli side.

Speaking at a press conference, the U.N. chief also rebuked Israel for putting conditions on steps it is supposed to take in parallel with Palestinian moves under the roadmap, reported the Israeli Haaretz newspaper Thursday, July 21.

"I do not think one should condition one's own action ... and this is something that has worried those of us that have worked on the roadmap that past efforts failed because some of it became so conditioned that it was conditioned to death.

"And we felt on this that there should be parallel steps by the parties, and the quartet stands by that approach."

"What we don't want is a situation where, de facto, the boundaries are changed" said Blair

Echoing the same tone, Blair voiced misgivings over Israel's plan to continue building the controversial barrier around the West Bank, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We have expressed our own misgivings," Blair told a press conference in his Downing Street residence.

"What we don't want is a situation where, de facto, the boundaries are changed, because that would mean that a peace settlement is less likely and less possible," he averred.

Only cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and Israel on security measures would "take away the pressure on the Israeli government to carry on doing what it can to protect its citizens," he said.

"In the end, unless you get an agreement, and that agreement has got to start with the security measures, you are not going to make progress on this," Blair noted.

Palestinians have decried the security boundary as an attempt to establish the boundaries of a future state outside the negotiating process.

Pressure

"If the fence is constructed in a way which continues to intrude on Palestinian land... that is a problem," said Powell

In an attempt to dispel Arab and Palestinian fears that Washington was changing hearts and backing the Israeli position on the separation wall, Powell asserted on Wednesday that the administration would keep pressing Israel on the controversial barrier, reported Haaretz.

"We are going to press on this issue. There are other phases of construction coming along and... this is an area that will have to be discussed as we move forward," Powell told Reuters.

"If the fence is constructed in a way which continues to intrude on Palestinian land, even if it's compensated for, in a way that makes it harder to go forward with the additional elements of the road map... that is a problem," he added.

Dashing Palestinian hopes of laying pressures on Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon to scrap the wall construction, U.S. President George Bush only promised to continue talks with Sharon "on how best to make sure that the fence sends the right signal, that not only is security important, but the ability for the Palestinians to live a normal life is important as well."

Palestinians viewed the statements as a retracting on earlier stronger position by the American president who stressed Friday after talks with Palestinian Premier Mahmoud Abbas that the separation wall as was a "problem" to the peace process and confidence-building with the Palestinians.

"It is very difficult to develop confidence between the Palestinians and the Israelis ... with a wall snaking through the West Bank," said Bush emerging from his first meeting with Abbas at the White House.

With Bush to his side, Sharon had adamantly insisted that the construction of the wall "will continue to be built."

The controversial barrier has also sparked a semantic battle: Israel labeled it a security fence, or a "seam zone," terms which fail to reflect the magnitude of the work at hand.

Palestinians have dubbed it a "wall," a clear reference to the Berlin Wall and a terminology only accurate in parts of the northern West Bank.

Although he initially used the Palestinian term, after his get-together with Sharon, Bush backtracked and started using the Israeli-coined "fence."

A senior source in Sharon's delegation said it as a good sign that Bush used the Israeli term.