A Palestinian woman carries her child as she passes by the concrete separation wall in the village of Sawahreh, east of occupied Jerusalem

OCCUPIEDJERUSALEM, October 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Few hours after a U.N. report maintained that the Israeli constructed separation wall in the West bank was tantamount to "illegal annexation" of Palestinian territories, the defiant Israeli government of Ariel Sharon approved Wednesday, October 1, a new 100-million-dollar section of the controversial barrier.

The Israeli ministers also decided to erect another separate "fence" around the West Bank Jewish settlement of Ariel, which is largely expected to be linked later to the main wall, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The new 45-kilometer section would begin at the Jewish settlement of Elkana in the north of the West Bank and stretch to the Ofer military base, near occupied Jerusalem.

The first phase of the separation wall was completed in July in the northern West Bank, but further construction has been delayed over differences between Israel and Washington over the wall's route, especially whether it would delve deep into the West Bank to incorporate Ariel.

The BBC said the U.S. administration has raised objections to the new section of the wall, and is considering withholding loan guarantees to Israel to the value of the cost of any sections of wall the U.S. considers unnecessary.

A U.N. report underlined Tuesday, September 30, that the separation wall marked illegal annexation of Palestinian territory and must be condemned by the world community.

"The evidence strongly suggests that Israel is determined to create facts on the ground amounting to de facto annexation," warned U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, John Dugard.

Human Rights Watch also warned that the wall would have its toll on the Palestinian people.

"Even in its first phase, the barrier is taking a terrible toll on tens of thousands of people," AFP quoted as saying Joe Stork, acting executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of HRW.

The New York-based human rights watchdog said in a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush Wednesday that Washington should punish Israel for building the barrier.

"President Bush should ensure that the U.S. government does its utmost to prevent these serious violations of international law. Deducting the barrier's cost from the loan guarantees is an obvious place to start."

Bush had previously described the wall as "a problem" obstructing the creation of a Palestinian state.

However, he dropped the term four days later when Sharon was visiting him in the White House.

Palestinians have accused Israel of seeking to pre-empt the boundaries of any future two-state settlement to their bloody conflict with the barrier, which takes the form of both a fence and a concrete wall at times.

The 600km-long separation wall will cut occupied 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 and could cost up to $2.2 million a kilometer or a total of $1.8 billion.