by Chris Otton
JERUSALEM, Aug 5 (AFP) - Israel will scale back its controversial construction of new houses in a key West Bank settlement following US pressure, public television said late Thursday.
The government has decided to cut about a quarter of the 600 new homes in Maale Adumin it had planned for the largest of the West Bank settlements, it said.
The mayor of the settlement of some 28,000 inhabitants, Benny Kachriel, told television "the construction of this lot of 600 houses was already approved during the era of Ehud Barak's Labour government" in 1999.
"We already sold 465 of these house, and the freeze announced Thursday night concerns the rest of these house," he said.
The announcement came after a meeting between top White House envoy Elliott Abrams, the deputy to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in which the US envoy was expected to criticize the construction plans, as well as a blueprint for a new West Bank settlement.
Abrams also met with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who said afterward: "Israel will respect all of its commitments under the roadmap," referring to the Middle East peace plan endorsed by both the Palestinians and Israel last year.
Under the plan, Israel is required to freeze all settlement activity in the occupied territories. About 100 settlements have sprung up since Sharon took office in 2000.
Public radio reported earlier Thursday that detailed planning work, including the tendering process, for the new neighbourhood between Maale Adumin and Jerusalem was expected to be completed in the next six months after which construction on the 1,500-hectare (3,700-acre) development may begin.
A US source said: "I would think there's some concern about all this. It does not seem to be compatible with the roadmap which the Israelis have accepted. He (Abrams) will want to hear how they are going to square that circle."
A housing ministry official denied that any authorisation for a "concrete" building project linking Jerusalem and Maale Adumin had been given.
"A general plan, which was approved in principle 10 years ago, exists, but there is nothing new," he told AFP on condition of anonymity. "We have enough trouble as it is to sell the thousands of apartments which already exist."
The Maariv daily said however that while the plan was first conceived by late premier Yitzhak Rabin it has "begun to gather steam... very quietly and very surreptitously."
Land on which the neighbourhood is to be built was recently declared state land and annexed to Maale Adumin's municipal boundaries, the paper added.
US President George W. Bush has said it would be "unrealistic" for Israel to withdraw completely from the West Bank but he has also been given assurances that Israel would not expand existing settlements.
Sharon has made clear that he wants to annex settlements such as Maale Adumin which is just outside Jerusalem, on the road to Jericho.
Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat, who attended a meeting between Abrams and Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei in the West Bank town of Abu Dis, said they had asked the Americans to intervene to stop any settlement expansion.
"We asked the Americans to intervene immediately to stop this activity which is in violation of the roadmap and of promises the Israelis have given to the Americans," he told AFP. "This is destroying the roadmap."
Secretary of State Colin Powell recently expressed his "disappointment" to Shalom about the failure to dismantle the outposts which the Peace Now settlement watchdog says still number nearly 100.
Washington has also expressed its "deep concerns" about Israel's closure of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt where thousands of Palestinians have been stranded for nearly a month.
An army spokesman announced that the border crossing will be opened early Friday.
Egyptian officials say that some 3,400 Palestinians are now stuck on the border. It was sealed off over security fears that Palestinian militants may be burrowing a tunnel underneath it.
Rights groups have also raised concerns about the worsening conditions on the border where three pregnant women have suffered miscarriages in the last few days.