December 15, 2003	Monday	Shawwal 20, 1424

AL QUDS, Dec 14: Israeli officials pledged their allegiance to the troubled “roadmap” peace plan on Sunday after being warned by US President George W. Bush against implementing unilateral measures.

As visiting US envoy David Satterfield met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s bureau chief Dov Weisglass and Shin Beth security services chief Avi Dichter, a close ministerial ally of the premier insisted that Israel did not want to fall out with Washington.

“The whole unilateral process should be coordinated with the Americans,” Absorption Minister Tzipi Livni told military radio.

Livni acknowledged that the Bush regime “does not want to be confronted with a situation where overnight Israel takes unilateral measures which will go against the roadmap.”

Sharon has been speaking increasingly of unilateral measures, apparently unconvinced that new Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei can be a partner in the peace process.

He has yet to spell out what they would entail but observers believe that Sharon is hoping to take the lead in setting the boundaries of any future two-state settlement with a limited evacuation of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Bush however warned Friday that “Israel must be mindful ... that they don’t make decisions that make it hard to create a Palestinian state.”

Israeli radio quoted sources close to Sharon on Sunday as saying the premier had “no intention of taking measures that will harm the roadmap”.

“An Israeli redeployment cannot take place unless it has become crystal clear that the roadmap has reached a dead end,” one source added.—AFP