Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's withdrawal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza strip has "paralysed" the international community, Palestinian deputy prime minister Nabil Shaath said yesterday.

"The Israeli government's withdrawal from Gaza has really paralysed international opinion about Israel's expected attempt at building walls of separation and isolation of Jerusalem," Shaath said in Jakarta.

"Israel is claiming that it needs international acquiescence in order to overcome the opposition of the extreme right-wing that is opposed to withdrawal from Gaza, but Israel has been delaying its withdrawal from Gaza to give itself more time to start settlements in the West Bank," he told journalists at the Asia-Africa Summit.

Sharon is committed to the evacuation, which will see the removal of all troops and more than 8,000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip along with several hundred from the northern West Bank later this year.

Shaath said that he had expressed "extreme concern" to the co-chairs of the Asia-Africa Summit - the South African President Thabo Mbeki and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono - over the limited nature of the Israeli withdrawal.

"One can never accept the exchange between five per cent which is Gaza, 5pc of the total Palestinian territory, and the 95pc which is the West Bank, totally threatened with indecent occupation through settlement and wall-building," Shaath said.

In Beirut, Fatah chief Faruq Qaddumi said yesterday that armed Palestinian groups in Lebanon would not give up their weapons until Israel complies with dozens of UN resolutions issued against it.

"There are 28 resolutions that have not been implemented" by Israel, the head of the mainstream Palestinian Fatah movement told reporters after meeting Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmud Hammud.

"Let Israel and the US, which obstructs the implementation of these resolutions, implement them first, before asking us to implement other resolutions," said Qaddumi.

Hizbollah said prisoner exchange negotiations with Israel were reaching a decisive stage but warned it could resort to force to free the last Lebanese detainees if talks failed.

"We are involved and are closer than at any time in the past to the hour of truth on this issue, the issue of negotiations," Hizbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said.

PHOTO CAPTION

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono addresses the closing session of the Asia-Africa Summit 2005 in Jakarta. (AFP)