Jerusalem - Israel plans to build more than 6 000 homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank this year, a sharp boost in its construction in the occupied territory, an Israeli newspaper reported on Friday.
The reported settlement expansion project by the Israel Lands Administration (ILA), a government agency, would coincide with Israel's plan to pull out of the Gaza Strip this summer and defy US calls for a freeze in "settlement activity".
The US-backed road map requires a halt to settlement building on land Israel captured in 1967 and where Palestinians want statehood.
Palestinians are worried that Israel wants to quit Gaza only to annex areas around more populous West Bank settlement blocs.
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The international community regards settlements as illegal under international law. Israel disputes this.
The Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported the ILA's working plan for 2005 calls for 6 391 homes to be built in existing West Bank settlements. The newspaper said Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz had given the go-ahead for the marketing of the housing projects.
In addition, the report said, the government planned to "legitimise" 120 unauthorised settlement outposts in the West Bank which it has promised the United States to dismantle.
An ILA spokesperson could not be reached and a defence ministry spokesperson declined immediate comment.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat urged US President George Bush to press Israel "to make sure such a plan is not implemented and that his call for a freeze in all settlement activity is implemented".
Israel has said it will continue to build in existing settlements to accommodate what it calls the natural growth of their populations.
Some 225 000 Israelis live in 120 settlements in the West Bank and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has pledged to hold on to major settlement blocs in the territory in any permanent peace accord with the Palestinians.
Yedioth Ahronoth said a third of the new Israeli homes planned this year in the West Bank would be built just outside Jerusalem in Maaleh Adumim, Israel's largest settlement, which has a population of 30 000.
According to the ILA's Website, the agency marketed 1 783 new housing units in the West Bank in 2004 and 1 225 in 2003.
(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza)
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