ISRAEL said yesterday it would remove two additional unauthorised outposts in the West Bank under a US-backed peace ?road map?, a move the country?s leading anti-settlement group called negligible. The Peace Now organisation said the Havat Maon outpost is home to only two families of Jewish settlers and several individuals, while the other outpost, Tal Binyamin, is uninhabited but contains a building where religious studies are held.

Settlers have erected around 100 unauthorised outposts on West Bank hilltops. The violence-stalled ?road map? calls on Israel to dismantle all outposts built since March 2001, when Ariel Sharon, a long-time champion of settlement construction on land seized in the 1967 Middle East war, became Prime Minister.

Sharon and Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz agreed on the latest evacuation orders after eviction notices were served last week on four outposts built without government approval in the West Bank, the Defence Ministry said.

Referring to Tal Binyamin and Havat Maon, Yariv Oppenheimer, a Peace Now spokesman, said the group was ?not surprised that Sharon and Mofaz chose these tiny, negligible outposts instead of taking care of the bigger and more developed outposts?. A major move against large outposts could lead to confrontations with Jewish settlers and shake the foundations of Sharon?s right-wing coalition government.

There was no immediate Palestinian comment on the latest eviction orders. Last week, the Palestinian Authority described as a public relations stunt the announcement that four outposts -- only one of them, inhabited -- would be removed.

The Defence Ministry said the orders issued yesterday could be appealed to Israeli courts within 10 days. Many of the outposts were built at the sites of deadly Palestinian attacks against Israelis during a three-year-old uprising.

Settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein accused Sharon?s government of ?surrendering to US pressure and (Palestinian) terrorism?. He said settlers would use ?all legal and political means? to fight the edict. The road map, which envisions a Palestinian state by 2005, also calls on the Palestinians to dismantle militant groups and for Israel to freeze construction in the 150 settlements built with government approval on occupied land since 1967. International community regards settlements as illegal. Israel disputes this.