JERUSALEM, July 22 (AFP) - Nearly 100 settlement outposts remain intact in the Palestinian territories despite commitments by the Israeli government to tear most of them down, a settlement watchdog said Thursday.
A report compiled by the Peace Now organisation said just three of the outposts had been dismantled over the past two months, while two had been erected.
Ninety-six of the outposts remain, 51 of which were built after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came to power in 2001.
Expansion work had been detected in aerial surveys of a dozen other outposts.
There was also evidence of efforts to construct a large road "in order to create a continuity of settlements between the settlements in the Jordan Valley and the northwest areas of the West Bank," it added.
"The building of infrastructure and permanent structures is continuing in the outposts," the report said.
"The complete inaction of the government on this issue is costing the state a high price -- economically, in security and more -- that the average citizen has to pay for on a daily basis."
Sharon agreed to tear down all outposts erected since he came to power in 2001 when he endorsed the US-backed roadmap peace plan last summer, which also called on Israel to halt all expansion of existing settlements.
The outposts are generally set up as makeshift settlements with caravans but are often later "legalised" by the authorities.
The international community considers all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories illegal.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed "disappointment" at the government's failure to dismantle the outposts at a faster pace in talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom in Washington earlier this month.