JERUSALEM, Aug 17 (AFP) - A US delegation is to inspect Israel's settlement activity in the West Bank amid mounting frustration from Washington over Prime Minister Ariel Sharon government's failure to dismantle unauthorised settlement outposts.
US embassy spokesman Paul Patin said that the team was expected to arrive next month to "monitor Israel's compliance with the roadmap in terms of settlement activity."
Under the terms of the US-backed roadmap peace plan, Israel is obliged to dismantle all the outposts which have been erected since Sharon came to power in 2001.
But since the blueprint was endorsed by both the Israelis and Palestinians last year, only a handful of the nearly 100 outposts have been torn down.
"We expect Israel to abide by its commitments in the roadmap," Patin added.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell recently told Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom of his "disappointment" over the lack of action by the government.
And sources close to US ambassador Dan Kurzer said that he had voiced impatience Monday over the outposts in talks with senior defence ministry official Baruch Spiegel.
A close aide of Sharon insisted that the premier "was doing his upmost to fulfill his commitments" under the roadmap but that settlers were slowing up the dismantling process by resorting to the courts.
"We are a state of law, we cannot act above the law otherwise the settlers could do much the same," the aide told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The outposts are generally set up as makeshift settlements with caravans but are often later "legalised" by the authorities.
News of the delegation came as it emerged that Sharon had given the green light to the construction of some 1,000 new homes at government-authorised settlements in the West Bank.
The roadmap also obliges Israel to freeze all settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The international community regards all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories as illegal, regardless of when they were built.