AL QUDS, Sept 19: Ministers from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Likud party said on Friday a controversial security barrier being built to cut off the West Bank should pass well into Palestinian territory in order to protect two Jewish settlements, a government source reported.

However, at a meeting chaired by Sharon, they put off a final decision on the matter, the source said. They will wait until defence ministry Director General Amos Yaron returns from an upcoming trip to Washington, where he will attempt to allay US concerns over the barrier that have led to sanction threats by the United States.

The route favoured by the ministers would cut some 20 kilometres into Palestinian territory in order to provide protection to the Jewish settlements of Ariel and Kedumim.

Yaron is due to head for Washington this weekend for talks on the barrier, and Sharon chief of staff Dov Weissglas may also be going.Their trip and Friday’s meeting come amid threats of US sanctions.

The US State Department said on Tuesday Washington would penalize Israel for building in Palestinian areas by deducting from promised loan guarantees the amount spent on settlements in Palestinian territory occupied in 1967.

US officials were still considering whether to further penalize Israel over construction of the barrier itself, which is built on the Palestinian side of the line in several places, the White House said.

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom is expected to discuss the question when he meets with US Secretary of State Colin Powell on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York next week, public radio reported.

US President George W. Bush has called the building of the barrier a “problem,” and Powell said in August that its construction should not be allowed to “prejudice anyone else’s property, anyone else’s rights”.

“It’s when the fence begins to intrude on land that is not on the Israeli side of the Green Line or starts to intrude in a way that makes it more difficult for us to make the case for a viable Palestinian state,” he said.

The Israeli security cabinet had been expected to decide on Wednesday whether the barrier should snake round Kedumin and Ariel, but a meeting was delayed until next week. There was speculation this came under pressure from the United States, but Sharon’s office said it was due to the premier’s overloaded timetable.

The Palestinians see the barrier as an attempt by Israel to pre-empt the boundaries of any future two-state settlement. Israel has insisted its purpose is merely to prevent infiltrations by would-be suicide bombers and has no political connotations.

A first section stretching some 140 kilometres in the northern West Bank was completed recently, up to 17 kilometres have already been built around Al Quds and another section is already in progress.

SETTLER: An Israeli court on Friday charged a Jewish settler with belonging to a “terrorist network” suspected of masterminding anti-Palestinian attacks, a judicial source said.