WASHINGTON, Feb 5: Israel expects to begin the process of withdrawing Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip this year as it forges ahead with unilateral steps it sees as necessary to break Palestinian resistance, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Thursday.

Mr Olmert, on a lightning visit to the United States to brief US officials about Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's controversial plans to evacuate settlers from Gaza, could not give a precise date for the start, but said there would "definitely" be some action before the end of the year.

"We are working now on the plans," he told reporters at the State Department after meeting Secretary of State Colin Powell.

"It will take some time before these plans will be ready and I believe that in the second part of this year this plan will be completed and we will be ready to move forward," Mr Olmert said.

"What precisely the timetable for the actual dismantling of settlements, I will not say it now, I think it's a little bit premature, but something will definitely happen in the year 2004 in this regard," he said.

The United States, which has repeatedly warned Israel and the Palestinians against unilateral measures that could complicate a negotiated peace deal, has signalled cautious approval of Mr Sharon's plan.

"Any steps that are taken that move us closer to resolving the issues, to reaching a negotiated outcome, is good," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Wednesday.

But he stressed that any movement on settlements should not come at the expense of Mr Sharon's commitment to the roadmap, which calls for Israel and the Palestinians to take steps to achieve a permanent two-state solution to the long-running conflict.

"Action to remove settlements as a source of tension and a source of difficulty is good, but we're looking for action on settlements that moves us in the direction of the president's (two-state) vision," Mr Boucher said.

Mr Sharon's intention to dismantle all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, home to 7,500 Israelis, possibly by next summer, has raised a firestorm of protest in his party and from right-wingers.

He was forced to send Mr Olmert to brief Washington on the plans because Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom opposes the withdrawal on the grounds that it would encourage Palestinian attacks.

But Mr Olmert rejected that concern and restated Israel's commitment to meeting its obligations in the roadmap while insisting that the Jewish state had to act unilaterally in the absence of firm Palestinian steps to rein in militant groups. -AFP