Israel is considering a permanent ban on Palestinians using major roads in the occupied West Bank, security sources have said, drawing Palestinian condemnation of the idea as a form of apartheid.

Israel barred private Palestinian vehicles from several West Bank highways on Monday, expanding a network of settler-only routes, a day after Palestinian fighters killed three young Jewish settlers in a drive-by shooting.

The army had billed the new restrictions as temporary to protect Israelis from further attack in the territory, which many analysts believe will become the focus of renewed violence following Israel's pullout from Gaza last month.

But a plan is now under consideration for permanently designating some roads for separate use by Israelis and Palestinians. "The army is discussing implementation of such a plan," a senior security source said.

Israel's Maariv daily said it was part of a larger blueprint to eventually separate the Israeli and Palestinian populations, but the security officials cast doubt on such a motive.

Road-use restrictions

Military commanders were due to meet on Wednesday to discuss road-use restrictions in the West Bank, Israel Radio reported.

Palestinians see the measures, which force them onto poorly maintained back roads, as part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's strategy of tightening Israel's grip on West Bank settlement blocs after pulling all 8500 settlers out of the Gaza Strip.

In White House talks on Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to urge pressure for a halt to Israeli settlement construction. About 245,000 Jews live in the West Bank, home to 2.4 million Palestinians. Palestinians want Gaza and the West Bank for a future state.

"If they go ahead (and make the road restrictions permanent) it is the official introduction of an apartheid system," Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said. "This scheme ... would destroy any effort to revive a meaningful peace process."

Bolster
He said creation of separate roads also bolsters Israel's barrier under construction in the West Bank. Israel says it keeps out bombers. Palestinians call it a land grab.

The latest restrictions on Palestinians mark reinstatement of measures introduced during a five-year-old uprising but which had been rolled back since a ceasefire took effect in February. The army said it would continue letting Palestinian buses run.

Demanding a Palestinian Authority crackdown on fighters, Israel on Monday suspended security contacts with the Palestinians and sealed off biblical Bethlehem, from where Sunday's attackers were thought to have come.

Three Israelis were killed in the deadliest attack in last months. The violence stirred new doubts about a shaky eight-month-old truce and undermined hopes the Gaza pullout would spur peace moves.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinians walk on a dirt path from the West Bank village of Halhul towards the West Bank city of Bethlehem October 19, 2005. (REUTERS)