Israel Sets Four Year Deadline to Draw Final Borders

Israel's acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has said the country will draw its final borders within four years without consulting the Palestinians if Hamas does not recognise the Jewish state.

Mr Olmert, who is strongly favoured to win a general election in three weeks, told the Jerusalem Post that by 2010 he intended to "get to Israel's permanent borders, whereby we will completely separate from the majority of the Palestinian population and preserve a large and stable Jewish majority in Israel".

He did not specify the route of the new frontier, which he said would be decided after an "internal dialogue inside Israel" and consultations with Israel's foreign allies. But he repeated his intention to annex the main settlement blocks in the West Bank and retain control of the Jordan river area "as a security border", resulting in a Palestinian state entirely surrounded by territory under Israeli control.

Support for Mr Olmert's Kadima party, launched last year by Ariel Sharon before he went into a coma two months ago, has slipped in recent weeks amid corruption allegations and following the Hamas landslide in the Palestinian elections. But with opinion polls still giving Kadima a commanding lead in the parliament, public support for a withdrawal from large parts of the West Bank while holding on to the main settlements remains high.

The plan outlined by Mr Olmert would require the removal of about 60,000 Israelis from settlements deeper inside the West Bank but leave about 350,000 in the main blocks and East Jerusalem.

Mr Olmert said he would give Hamas a "reasonable" amount of time to meet demands to recognise the Jewish state, renounce violence and accept existing agreements signed by the Palestinian Authority (PA). "We will wait, but I don't intend to wait forever," he said. "If after a reasonable time passes it becomes clear that the PA is not willing to accept these principles, we will need to begin to act."

Mr Olmert also said he had no plans to meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas because he was not prepared to draw "artificial distinctions" between the Palestinian leader and a Hamas government. "The Palestinian Authority is one authority, the minute the dominant force in the PA is Hamas, then why [meet]?" he said.

The Palestinians' chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, told Reuters that unilaterally imposing a border would not bring peace. "The road to peace and security in the region is not through unilateralism, the building of walls and settlements, but rather through the resumption of permanent status negotiations," he said.