ISRAEL has secretly agreed a plan to build 3,500 homes for Jewish settlers in the West Bank, in breach of its commitment to the United States-backed “road map” peace plan. The move would consolidate its grip on Jerusalem.

Senior government sources said that plans had been approved by Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister, which envisage construction between the settlement of Maale Adumim, the largest in the West Bank, and Arab east Jerusalem.

They added that Israel would not shy away from building in the other large West Bank settlements of Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, and Ariel, to the north, just two weeks after a government report was highly critical of official connivance in the construction of illegal outposts.

The plans provoked fury from Palestinians, who said that the schemes would jeopardise peace efforts and confirmed fears that the uproar around Israel’s plan to withdraw from Gaza settlements was being used to consolidate its hold on the West Bank.

The road map states clearly that Israel would freeze all settlement construction, but a year ago, after meeting Mr Sharon in the White House, President Bush said that in any deal to resolve the conflict Israel could expect to retain the large settlement blocs that house most of the 230,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

Yesterday officials reiterated the Israeli Government’s determination to hold on to the largest of the settlements, despite the hopes for peace sparked by the mutual ceasefire agreed at a summit at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, last month.

“These areas will never be transferred to the Palestinian Authority,” an adviser to Mr Sharon said. “We’re not talking about rogue outposts but perfectly legal settlements, where we will continue to build homes, administrative offices and industrial areas in keeping with our needs.” Aerial photographs ordered by the Israeli Defence Ministry last summer and this year confirmed the West Bank settlements’ rapid expansion, although the Government maintains that this is merely growth within existing boundaries. A week ago Mr Sharon approved the plan — drawn up six years ago — to build 3,500 homes to the east of Jerusalem, which is considered by Israel as its “eternal and indivisible” capital.

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