TEL AVIV, Feb 9: Israeli state attorneys told the supreme court on Monday the route of a barrier designed to stop suicide bombers but cutting deep into the occupied West Bank would probably be revised to ease Palestinian hardship.

In a separate challenge to Israel, Palestinian leaders were considering whether to declare a state unilaterally in the West Bank and Gaza to counter an Israeli threat of go-it-alone disengagement steps, a senior Palestinian official said.

There was no immediate indication at the end of the two-hour court session when the judges would rule in the case brought by two Israeli civil rights groups ahead of World Court deliberations on the same issue later.

"The fence route will probably be moved, and a change of policy in the seam-line area is being considered in order to ease as much as possible the lives of the Palestinians living in it," a state attorney, told the court.

He was referring to West Bank territory, where completed sections of the barrier have restricted Palestinians' access to fields, schools and neighbouring villages. -Reuters