<B>ISRAEL COULD</B> scrap up to one-fifth of its West Bank settlements and most of its Gaza enclaves under a draft plan an Israeli newspaper said it obtained ahead of a visit by US envoys on yesterday.

Maariv published what it said were recommendations Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asked top security advisers to draw up as he prepared for talks with the envoys on unilateral moves he has threatened if a US-backed peace ?road map? fails.

Palestinians fear Sharon is pursuing his ?disengagement plan? with the ultimate goal of trading Gaza for permanent control over large parts of the West Bank, effectively depriving them of land they want for a state.

Maariv said the draft outline recommended evacuating all but three of the 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and uprooting four in the West Bank at the same time.

Eventually, the newspaper said, another 15 to 20 of the 120 settlements in the West Bank would go, a number higher than mentioned in previous reports about the evolving proposals.

The Maariv report gave no timeframe, though security sources have said Sharon would not begin implementing his plan until after the US presidential election in November. Political sources have said Sharon, a former champion of settlement building, is leaning towards a complete withdrawal of settlers and soldiers from Gaza and removal of a few of the most isolated West Bank settlements.

Some 7,500 settlers live in heavily defended enclaves in the Gaza Strip, which has a Palestinian population of 1.3 million. There are more than 200,000 settlers and two million Palestinians in the West Bank.

<B>Sharon to meet US envoys </B>

Under the draft plan, Israeli forces would maintain control over a narrow corridor on Gaza?s southern border with Egypt. The three Gaza settlements Israel would keep are located in the northern part of the coastal strip.

Stephen Hadley, the deputy US national security adviser, Elliot Abrams, the National Security Council?s Middle East chief, and Assistant Secretary of State William Burns were due to meet Sharon later in the day.

?Their main mission is to get more detail on Sharon?s disengagement plan,? a Western diplomatic source said.

The envoys met Sharon three weeks ago in Jerusalem and received a public assurance that Israel had not abandoned the showcase peace plan that Washington sponsored along with the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.

But, Sharon told them, Israel would prepare go-it-alone moves in case the road map ? which charts reciprocal confidence-building steps leading to creation of a Palestinian state by 2005 ? collapsed.

In Thursday?s talks, Sharon hopes to lay the groundwork for an expected trip to Washington in late March or early April, sources close to the prime minister said.

Even if he wins US backing for a pullout from some of the land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, Sharon still needs backing from within his right-wing government.

Two pro-settler coalition partners have said they would bolt if the plan was approved amid speculation the main opposition Labour Party would step in to take their place.

Public opinion polls have shown strong support in Israel for Sharon?s proposal but his popularity ratings have plunged against the backdrop of corruption scandals.

Megan Goldin