Israel plans separate roads for West Bank Palestinians

Members of the army's central command were expected to meet to discuss the plan which has been denounced by the Palestinian Authority as tantamount to a form of apartheid.

The Maariv daily said that the army had been given the green light earlier this week to begin implementing plans to separate the Israeli and Palestinian populations, the first phase of which would see certain roads designated for either Israelis or Palestinians.

The plans had been drawn up some time ago but were only dusted down in the aftermath of a Palestinian shooting attack near the Gush Etzion settlement bloc which left three Israelis dead.

A source close to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon confirmed the existence of a such a separation plan but stopped short of saying that it was already being implemented.

"This project has been in existence for some time and we will have no option but to implement it if the Palestinian Authority continues to do nothing to prevent terrorist attacks," said the official in Sharon's office.

"We are not going just sit with our arms folded while all the information that we have indicates that the terrorist organisations are going to intensify their operations" in the West Bank," he added.

Israel imposed a temporary ban on private Palestinian vehicles using some of the major roads in the West Bank in the aftermath of Sunday's attack which was the first since last month's pullout from the Gaza Strip. Travellers instead could only make their way in buses.

The separation plan would force Palestinians instead to use back roads to travel across the territory, few of which are in a good state of repair. In contrast, the highways around West Bank settlements are well-maintained.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said that the plan had ominous echoes of the apartheid regime in South Africa.

"These Israeli procedures forbidding Palestinian cars from the roads are a humanitarian crime which will put us back 70 years and punish all the Palestinian people," he told AFP.