Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans eventually to scrap a US-led ?road map? to peace with the Palestinians and instead seek Washington?s blessing for annexing occupied West Bank land, a newspaper said yesterday.

The report by senior staff of Maariv newspaper gave no source, but Sharon?s initial plans for last year?s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip were first floated in a similar way. Sharon?s spokesman declined comment.

Maariv said Sharon, who is up for re-election in March, will argue that Israel is justified in abandoning the peace plan and setting borders unilaterally because of the failure of the Palestinians to crack down on militant groups. In public, Sharon remains very much committed to the road map for a Palestinian state on land captured in the 1967 Middle East war alongside a secure Israel. But Palestinians have long said they suspect Sharon wants to dictate terms.

The Palestinians have failed to meet their own road map obligation to start disarming militant groups, and Israel has not met its own promise to halt settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank. The Maariv report said Sharon would go public with his new plan after Palestinian parliamentary elections this month, when Israeli intelligence has predicted a new outbreak of violence.

Maariv said the Israeli officials had already presented the idea to senior representatives of President George W. Bush?s administration. ?(They) explained to the Americans that since there is no real chance of any achievement in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, the natural partner for this matter is Washington, the Middle East?s superpower-broker,? Maariv said. The newspaper said Israel would propose evacuating dozens of West Bank settlements, allowing for the creation of a temporary Palestinian state on a single stretch of land in that territory.

In exchange, Maariv said, Israel wants Bush to endorse its annexation of other West Bank areas as well as parts of Arab East Jerusalem. Israel also wants US backing for its demand that Palestinian refugees be allowed to settle in the eventual Palestinian state but never in the Jewish state. Bush supported Sharon?s Gaza pullout and announced that Israel could expect to keep some West Bank land under any eventual peace deal with the Palestinians.