JERUSALEM - Israel's plan to withdraw from occupied Gaza will prevent a Palestinian state emerging and freeze peacemaking, and all with Washington's approval, a key adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Wednesday.

Adviser Dov Weisglass effectively dismissed an international "road map" peace plan.

A Palestinian girl helps to carry her six-month-old brother, who were both wounded after an Israeli tank fired a shell while they were sleeping in their Beit Lahiya home, north of Gaza Strip, October 6, 2004. Israeli tanks shelled the town in the northern Gaza Strip early on Wednesday, killing three Palestinians and wounding 10 children in their houses, witnesses and medics said. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

His remarks, coinciding with a massive Israeli offensive into Gaza, will help Sharon win over far-right foes opposed to Gaza "disengagement" and challenging his grip on power.

"The significance of our disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process. It supplies the formaldehyde necessary so there is no political process with Palestinians," Dov Weisglass said in an interview published in Haaretz daily Wednesday.

"When you freeze the process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state ... Effectively, this whole package called a Palestinian state, with all it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda," Weisglass said.

Palestinian leaders condemned the comments.

"I believe he has revealed the true intentions of Sharon. We told the quartet (of U.S.-led peace mediators) eight months ago that the Gaza plan was designed to undermine their road map," said Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erekat.

Weisglass said there would be no talks on key issues such as Palestinian refugees, borders and the status of Jerusalem in the foreseeable future. "And all this with authority and permission, all with a presidential blessing."

President Bush in April approved Sharon's plan to pull settlers from tiny Gaza in 2005 while holding onto larger Jewish enclaves in the West Bank, displacing the "road map" which promises Palestinians a viable state.

"By the way the Americans read the situation, the blame fell on the Palestinians, not on us, Arik (Sharon) grasped that (the Palestinians) would not leave us alone ... and time was not on our side," Haaretz quoted Weisglass as saying.

"What I effectively agreed to with the Americans was that part of the settlements would not be dealt with at all, and the rest will not be dealt with until the Palestinians turn into Finns," he said.

IMPASSE

Weisglass blamed Palestinian suicide bombings and militant violence for the diplomatic vacuum. Palestinians blame Israeli offensives as well as continued settlement activity in the West Bank. Israel captured both lands in the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel's dovish opposition said peace should come first.

"These stalling games will come at our expense. Can Israel expect to stop diplomatic processes around the world? We should not delude ourselves," said Labor Party leader Shimon Peres. "Until we have peace we (cannot expect) calm and security."

Weisglass said 190,000 of the 240,000 settlers would stay in place under Sharon's plan which suggests 40,000 more settlers would leave than the "disengagement" plan previously foresaw.

Palestinian leaders say "disengagement" is a gambit to dash their statehood dream by confining 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank to patches of land separated by settlement blocs.

They fear Sharon feels free to do as he pleases given Bush's preoccupation with a re-election campaign in which he will need Jewish votes, and with a troubled U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.

Israeli armored forces stormed into northern Gaza a week ago in a concerted bid to smash militants responsible for frequent rocket fire into nearby Israeli border areas.

Seventy-five Palestinians have been killed, 30 of them civilians, according to local hospital figures. Three Israelis including a woman settler have been killed.

Washington Tuesday vetoed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate end to Israel's offensive, saying it failed to mention Palestinian attacks.

© 2004 Reuters Ltd.

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