RAMALLAH, Jan 6: Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat said on Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "does not want peace," speaking after Sharon again threatened unilateral measures to separate the Jewish state from the Palestinians.

"Sharon does not want peace; he wants to continue to build the wall and to conduct military operations," Arafat told journalists at his office here, referring to the barrier being constructed to separate Israel from the West Bank.

He also played down the dismantlement of certain illegal Jewish settlements announced by Sharon, saying "removing one mobile home here and another one there is nothing more than a trick."

In a speech on Monday night to his Likud party, Sharon reaffirmed his commitment to the internationally drafted peace 'roadmap.' But he repeated his warnings that should the Palestinians fail to meet their own obligations and crack down on hardliners in the occupied territories he would press on with his own 'unilateral measures.'

In comments that drew cries of outrage from his hardliners, he reiterated that he would not hesitate to follow his 'disengagement' plan, which is likely to see the Israelis withdraw from a number of isolated Jewish settlements while strengthening control over some larger settlement blocs.

"What Sharon said in his speech shows that he does not want to apply the roadmap," Arafat said, noting that the Israeli government had accepted the plan with 14 reservations.

"The number of reservations is greater than the (points of) the plan itself," he said. The roadmap was launched in June by US President George W. Bush but has made little progress, with top-level talks between the Palestinians and Israelis frozen.

The project envisages the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005 but only after both sides have met a series of commitments. The Palestinian Authority is obliged to put an end to attacks on Israel by militant groups, while the Israelis must halt settlement activity and dismantle illegal settlement outposts.-AFP