TEL AVIV, Jan 19: Israel, facing a World Court hearing over its contentious barrier in the West Bank, plans cosmetic changes to its route, political sources said on Monday.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Sunday that the Jewish state could mull adjustments in order to make life easier for Palestinians, but would do so only on its own terms.

"There will definitely be changes, but they will be cosmetic changes, tactical changes," one senior source told Reuters. Israel says completed sections of the barrier of razor wire and concrete, rising steadily inside the West Bank, has helped stop at least two dozen suicide attacks like those that have killed hundreds of Israelis over three years of conflict. But Palestinians decry it as an "Apartheid Wall" meant to deprive them of a viable state by cutting deep into the West Bank around Jewish settlements as well as to seal a permanent Israeli hold on land the Palestinians want for a state.

Palestinians dismiss any talk of changing the route and insist Israel must not build it beyond the "Green Line" marking its boundary with the West Bank before the 1967 Middle East war.

"No peace with this wall," Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie said in English to reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "This is a wall of annexation and expansion. It's not acceptable."

The barrier faces its toughest challenge next month at a hearing of the International Court of Justice - also known as the World Court.-Reuters