AL QUDS, Dec 28: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday pushed ahead with a controversial plan to disengage from the peace process as new talks aimed at securing a ceasefire from Palestinian fighters were lined up.

Sharon appointed a general as the head of a new national security council with orders to prepare the disengagement plan which would involve the setting up of a new “security border”, a statement from the premier’s office said.

Major General Giora Eiland would head a team that would include representatives of the defence, foreign and justice ministries, as well as the military and security services, it said.

Eiland was appointed “as the coordinator of the team that will prepare a new Israeli security deployment in the event that the implementation of the roadmap is halted,” it added.

Sharon’s disengagement plan has been widely criticised, with Washington warning that any unilateral measures must not impede the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

The US-backed “roadmap” peace plan, which targets the creation of a Palestinian state in 2005, has made little progress since its June launch.

High-level talks have been frozen for more than four months and a much-anticipated summit between Sharon and Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei has been repeatedly pushed back.

Sharon said in a keynote speech ten days ago that Israel would set up its own security border within a few months if the Palestinians did not start cracking down on militant groups which have continued their attacks against Israel.

Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath, in Egypt on Sunday, said that Egyptian intelligence services chief Omar Suleiman would travel to the West Bank town of Ramallah on January 6 for a new round of talks with Palestinian factions that have so far failed to agree to a ceasefire of any kind.

Egyptian-mediated talks held in Cairo at the beginning of the month broke up without agreement from Palestinian groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Meanwhile, Sharon insisted on Sunday that any negotiations with Syria must start from scratch rather than take up from where they left off nearly four years ago.—AFP