JERUSALEM - Defence chiefs Thursday recommended that Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip be delayed until the middle of August in a proposal likely to be accepted by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
At a meeting chaired by Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, police and army commanders urged that the start of the four-week pullout be put off until August 15, Israeli media reported.
The evacuation, which will see the removal of all troops and more than 8,000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip along with several hundred from the northern West Bank, was originally scheduled to begin in late July.
The recommendation came just days after Sharon said he was in favour of a slight delay to the pullout for religious reasons linked to the commemoration of the destruction of the Jewish Temple.
A senior Israeli military source involved in planning the pullout said troops would be ready for the operation, regardless of the date.
"I will do it whenever the political echelon asks me to do it... It's no problem," he told journalists.
He also said that preparations were being made on the assumption that "most residents of Gush Katif (settlement bloc) will not leave the communities voluntarily." But he stressed that police and soldiers would be able to overwhelm resistance.
Meanwhile, Sharon's number two, Shimon Peres, met Thursday with Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei at a hotel in west Jerusalem to discuss the forthcoming pullout.
The meeting, which was also attended by Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat and civil affairs minister Mohammed Dahlan, also focused on Gaza's economic future, a Palestinian source at the talks said.
The two sides discussed the possibility of a new meeting between Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, after a peace summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in early February at which they declared an end to more than four years of hostilities.
However, Sharon tempered hopes of a breakthrough with a demand for a complete halt to Palestinian violence before Israel begins implementing the troubled Middle East peace roadmap.
The prime minister, accused of violating the peace blueprint by pushing on with the expansion of West Bank settlements, said Israel would not be bound by its terms while attacks by Palestinian groups continued.
"We will not be committed to the roadmap until the Palestinians respect their commitment to stop terrorism," Sharon told public radio, saying he also expected a complete end to violence and incitement against Israel.
The Palestinian leadership slammed Sharon's comments, with Erakat calling on the peace plan's sponsors to "do everything possible to force Israel to carry out its commitments under the roadmap, which imposes obligations on both parties".
Drawn up by the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, the roadmap is a phased plan which aims for the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.
It has made little progress since its launch in 2003 with Israel accusing the Palestinians of violating the blueprint by failing to stop militant attacks, while Palestinians point to Israel's continuing settlement activity as a gross violation.
Although Abbas has persuaded militants to freeze their campaign of anti-Israeli attacks until the end of the year, the informal truce has proved less than watertight with rocket and shooting attacks still occurring.
One such attack saw an Israeli soldier lightly wounded near the Gaza border on Thursday.
The army said an explosive device blew up near the soldier's jeep on an Israeli road which skirts the border with Gaza, just north of the Karni crossing.
The Palestinian interior ministry said security forces had started an investigation into the incident, even though it had happened on the Israeli side of the border.
04/21/2005 16:18 GMT