Israel is expanding its biggest Jewish settlement in the West Bank, an Israeli newspaper said yesterday, a step that would further cut Palestinians off from Jerusalem and go against a US backed peace plan.

Maariv daily said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had ordered a 3,750-acre (1,500-hectare) swathe of land in northeast Jerusalem annexed to Maaleh Adumim settlement. It said Israel was paving roads and laying sewage pipes at the site.

The Maaleh Adumim mayor said house building in the enclave was expected to begin in mid-2005, just as Sharon is due to begin removing Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip under a plan to “disengage” from almost four years of Middle East conflict.

“Within about half a year the planning in the Construction and Housing Ministry will be completed, such that the residential blueprint can be submitted to the defence minister for approval”, Mayor Benny Kashriel told Maariv.

<B>No comments from Israeli government</B>

On Sunday, political sources said Sharon had approved 600 new housing units for Maaleh Adumim, a suburban-style settlement of 30,000 people. It was not clear if they were destined for the new enclave linking the settlement to Jerusalem.

The move drew censure from Washington, chief patron of a “road map” to Palestinian statehood, which asked Israel to abide by an undertaking not to expand its settlements on land it seized in a 1967 war.

The international community generally regards Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Palestinians want for a state, as illegal.