Criticism Forces Olmert to Shelve Border Plan

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has put on hold his plans to unilaterally draw up a final border with the West Bank in the face of criticism over the war in Lebanon, according to senior political figures. A cabinet minister and an aide to Mr Olmert both said yesterday that the policy, which was the pillar of the prime minister's election victory five months ago, was now off the political agenda.

"It is my assessment the prime minister will not deal with this in the coming period, because it's really not on the agenda," Meir Shetreet, the housing minister, told Army Radio.

However, he said the idea of a partial withdrawal had not yet been scrapped. "I cannot say that the prime minister has dropped the plan. I don't think he has reached such a conclusion," he said. Mr Shetreet, a member of Mr Olmert's Kadima party, had long opposed the policy and preferred reaching a negotiated peace deal with the Palestinians.

Asaf Shariv, an Olmert aide, confirmed the rethink. "Right now, we will deal with other issues," he said. "It's not that it was cancelled, but it is not on the agenda."

Ha'aretz newspaper said yesterday that Mr Olmert had told his senior ministers and party members the plan was no longer "appropriate" after the Lebanon war.

The prime minister is facing widespread criticism of his handling of the war and his government's failure to comprehensively defeat the Hizbullah militia or even to retrieve the two soldiers whose capture on July 12 triggered the conflict.

Mr Olmert's West Bank plan received another blow yesterday when the justice minister, Haim Ramon, 56, a leading proponent of a unilateral partial withdrawal, said he would resign to stand trial over claims he sexually harassed an 18-year-old female soldier. He denies the charges.

Mr Olmert's reluctance to go ahead marks a sudden shift in policy. Before the conflict, he said he was committed to his separation plan in the West Bank despite fighting in Gaza. But 34 days of fighting has left the government struggling to explain why, after withdrawing from Lebanon and Gaza, it has had to return and fight again.

Mr Olmert had pledged to draw up a West Bank border over four years and remove thousands of settlers, while annexing three large settlement blocs. Palestinians say this would leave separate Palestinian enclaves, not a viable state.