WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (AFP) - The United States on Tuesday declined to criticize Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon`s approval of 1,000 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, saying it was studying whether the plans violated Israel`s stated commitment to freeze such construction.
The State Department said it was unclear of the details of Sharon`s plan, but stressed that Israel was well aware of US concerns about the Jewish state abiding by the so-called "roadmap" for peace, which calls for a halt to all settlement activity.
"We are studying the details regarding the tenders that have been issued by the government of Israel," deputy spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters. "Our concern is to determine whether these tenders are consistent with the government of Israel`s previous commitments on settlements."
He noted that senior US officials from the National Security Council had recently travelled to Israel to restate Washington`s position on the matter, and that Sharon should be in doubt as to what President George W. Bush`s stance is.
"We made it clear that we expect Israel to fulfill pledges it made to President Bush on the question of settlement outposts and settlement activity and, obviously, this is a subject of continuing discussion with the government of Israel," Ereli said.
The White House also declined to comment on the new settlements.
"We`ve seen those reports, and our embassy in Israel has been in touch with the government and has asked for some details," White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said. "That`s where it stands at the moment."
Peppered with questions about the US assessment of Sharon`s move -- which came on the eve of a crunch vote among members of his Likud party on his ambition to bring the moderate Labour party into government -- Ereli declined to respond.
"I`m not in a position now to say that any specific action is a violation of commitments," he said. "We`re not there yet. We`ve got to look at where these tenders are, what previous discussions were, what these tenders are for, what specific commitments were made."
Ereli confirmed comments from the spokesman for the US embassy in Tel Aviv that a delegation of American experts is to visit Israel in the coming weeks "to study some of these specific questions."
A senior State Department official said later that it was not clear whether Sharon actually intended to go ahead with construction of the homes, or whether it might be a political move intended to placate right-wing opponents of his US-backed plan to withdraw from Gaza.
"We don`t know how serious this is and whether we`re at the point that we need to get on a soapbox about it," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
Sharon had ordered the tenders frozen earlier in the month after US criticism over an apparent flouting of the terms of the roadmap peace plan, which obliges Israel to halt all settlement activity in the occupied territories.
The premier needs to bring the main opposition Labor party into government in a bid to secure parliamentary backing for his so-called disengagement plan, under which all 8,000 of the Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip will be evacuated by September 2005.
Sharon lost his parliamentary majority several months ago after traditional right-wing allies balked at the prospect of such a pullout.