The Israeli government told Jewish settlers to leave nine West Bank outposts yesterday or be evicted, in what political sources said was a calculated gesture by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon before his US visit.

Settlers vowed a last-minute appeal to Israel?s highest court to block any attempt to remove them from unauthorised outposts that have long been slated for removal under the stalled US-backed ?road map? to peace with the Palestinians.

US envoys are due in Israel next week to discuss Sharon?s proposal that Israel take unilateral steps to ?disengage from? the Palestinians, by removing most Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip, if the ?road map? process remains blocked.

Palestinians fear Israel may then take a permanent hold on large parts of the West Bank, depriving them of land seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and where they want a state. The road map, a series of reciprocal steps meant to lead to peace and a Palestinian state, requires the Palestinian Authority to rein in militants; it foresees Israel freezing settlement building in the occupied territories and taking down more than 100 outposts built since March 2001.

A spokesman at Sharon?s office said on Thursday that nine outposts erected without government consent faced removal ?at any time? after settlers failed to overturn an eviction order. The order to quit the West Bank outposts may be ?a good way of showing good faith? before Sharon?s expected visit to Washington this month, a senior Israeli political source said.

Palestinians were sceptical of seeing outposts removed : ?We are used to announcements from the Israelis that never happen,? Palestinian cabinet minister Ghassan al-Khatib said. Most countries regard all the settlements in the West Bank and Gaza as illegal, but Israel disputes this.

A helicopter strike killed three militants from the Islamic Hamas group near a settlement in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. Israeli police were on high alert for possible suicide bombings after Hamas, sworn to destroy Israel, vowed revenge.

Another Palestinian militant was killed in a mysterious explosion in the Rafah refugee camp of southern Gaza on Thursday, just before Israeli tanks rumbled in on what the army called a limited mission to destroy tunnels for smuggling arms.

The Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees said their Rafah field commander, Awni Kulab, was killed by an Israeli missile. The army said it had no one in the area at the time. The deadlock between Israelis and Palestinians has embarrassed the US administration, which had hoped its road map would revive Middle East peace talks that stalled in 2000.

Dan Williams