TEL AVIV, Oct 1: Israel said on Wednesday it was considering an unprecedented move of moving imports and exports through Egypt and Jordan, as a public sector strike left dozens of cargo ships stranded off the country’s own coast.

But Jordan said it would not let Israel use its port at Aqaba as an alternative for moving goods in and out of the country.

Information Minister Nabil Sharif said Israeli authorities had officially asked to use Aqaba, but Jordan had refused because such a move would overtax the port’s facilities.

Israeli officials said about 40 ships were anchored offshore because of the walkout by 2,500 employees on Tuesday in protest against plans to privatize the country’s three ports at Ashdod, Haifa and Eilat.

Deputy Finance Minister Meir Sheetrit said the government had plans to run imports and exports through the Jordanian port of Aqaba and Port Said, in Egypt, if the strike continued.

Israel does not yet have a formal agreement with the Jordanian and Egyptian port authorities, but such an arrangement had been agreed in principle. Israel has proposed to pay each port a fee of 200 dollars per container, or unit, handled.

“We want to offer this service to (the importers) but we don’t know how many of them will take it,” she said, explaining that the cost of transporting goods from the two ports would be borne by the importers.

The cost of routing merchandise via Aqaba and Port Said, estimated at 200 million dollars, would be deducted from the budget of the Israel Ports Authority, Israeli daily Maariv said.

Trucks could begin transporting goods between the two ports within two days if the plan goes ahead.

“I hope that we can avoid resorting to such an unprecedented solution” as using Aqaba and Port Said, Amos Ron, director general of the Port Authority, told the radio.

In a further move to bypass the strike, the government was also examining the possibility of opening a private port in northern Haifa, the finance ministry said.

The plan, which would involve opening Yovel Port, an existing but unused private facility in Haifa, was only in the very early stages, the spokeswoman said.

Army radio said Transportation Minister Avigdor Lieberman had given the orders to start work on the port on Thursday if the strike had not ended by then.

There was no immediate confirmation of the plan by the transport ministry.

Speaking on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon described the strike as “severe” and said the government would take immediate steps to break it.

“This industrial action is severe and we will take steps to reduce and stop it ... We see this strike as a very serious issue,” Sharon said.

In a bid to halt the crippling industrial action, Netanyahu sent a letter Tuesday to Histadrut Secretary General Amir Peretz asking for immediate talks.

The strike has also led to large-scale disruption of departures and arrivals at Tel Aviv’s international airport.

Unions promised unprecedented strikes after the government approved its tightened spending plan for 2004, in a bid to lift the economy out of the mire. —AFP