DUBAI, Sept 23: Nothing, including US cuts in loan guarantees, will stop Israel from completing a controversial barrier around the West Bank, the head of Israel’s delegation to the World Bank/International Monetary Fund annual meetings in Dubai said on Tuesday.

“We have the intention to build the fence as fast as possible to protect ourselves, and I hope that the United States would not punish us for that,” said Meir Sheetrit, minister without portfolio at the finance ministry, who arrived in Dubai on Monday with a 40-member delegation.

US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on Monday after meeting Israeli officials in Washington that the barrier — which US President George Bush has described as “a problem” — was not “consistent” with the United States’ view of the Middle East.

The United States has said it might deduct the cost of the barrier from the nine billion dollars worth of loan guarantees Washington has offered Israel.

Mr Sheetrit said no deal has been reached yet between the United States and Israel on the thorny issue of the fence, despite reports in Israeli media on Tuesday to that effect.

But Sheetrit said even if Washington goes ahead with cuts in loan guarantees, the Israeli government would complete the barrier.—AFP