Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has approved building tenders for 1000 more homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, sources say. The political sources said on Tuesday the tenders were frozen earlier to avoid upsetting the US. One source said the decision was intended to defuse resistance in Sharon's Likud party to his Gaza pullout plan and to bring centre-left proponents into his coalition. Likud members are to convene on Wednesday to vote on a link-up with the Labour party. The sources said the tender package did not flout recent understandings with Washington that new Jewish housing in the occupied West Bank - where Palestinians are in revolt - would be built within existing settlement boundaries. **US assurance*** They noted that US President George Bush assured Sharon in April that if he carried out his "disengagement" from Gaza, Israel could count on retaining parts of the West Bank with some large settlements under any future peace deal with Palestinians. But Washington has also been pressing Israel to dismantle proliferating settler outposts and curb settlement expansion to help revive an internationally-backed peace "road map" promising Palestinians a viable state in the West Bank and Gaza. Political sources said the tenders involved housing in seven settlements Sharon had vowed never to cede. The "disengagement" plan entails removing all 21 Gaza settlements containing 8000 Jews while retaining larger West Bank enclaves with most of the 240,000-strong settler population. Sharon in the past three weeks also approved tenders for 800 additional homes in the largest West Bank settlement, Maale Adumim. But sources predicted there would be consultations with Washington before construction proceeded. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Ariel Sharon escorted by his security, arrives at the weekly cabinet meeting at his Jerusalem office August 15, 2004. (Reuters)