Israel pushed ahead Wednesday with construction of a security barrier in the West Bank despite Palestinian dismay and Secretary of State Colin Powell's pledge to keep pressing on the issue.

President Bush failed in talks Tuesday to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to stop building what Israel says is a security fence and Palestinians call a new "Berlin Wall."

Israel says the barrier is to keep out suicide bombers. Palestinians say it grabs land they want to be part of their state. The United States says it is a problem because it could make life harder for Palestinians and prejudge future borders.

The issue overshadowed a fresh meeting between Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan and Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to discuss Israeli troop pullbacks from more West Bank cities. Israel's Army Radio said the two met in Jerusalem.

Palestinians picked on Bush's failure to change Sharon's mind as evidence of US connivance with Israel and unwillingness to challenge Sharon's policies they say undermine a US-backed "road map" to peace.

Militant groups, observing an already shaky month-old truce, accused Israel and the United States of trying to provoke a civil war between Palestinians and threatened to reconsider their promise to suspend their attacks on Israelis.

But comments Wednesday by Powell and Bush appeared aimed at assuaging the disappointment of mainstream Palestinian leaders.

Powell told Reuters in an interview: "We are going to press on this issue. There are other phases of construction coming along and ... this is an area that will have to be discussed as we move forward."

"If the fence is constructed in a way which continues to intrude on Palestinian land, even if it's compensated for, in a way that makes it harder to go forward with the additional elements of the road map ... that is a problem," he added.

BUSH STANDS BY PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD

Bush said Wednesday it was still "realistic" that a Palestinian state be established by 2005, the target date under the US-backed peace plan. "I think we're making pretty good progress in a short period of time," he told reporters.

But continued construction of the security barrier -- a concrete wall in some place and a metal fence topped with razor wire in others -- stoked resentment among ordinary Palestinians.

After talks with Bush, Sharon vowed to keep building the project, which polls show has overwhelming support of the Israeli public after 34 months of Middle East bloodshed.

"Good fences make good neighbors," he said in Washington.

Not all the neighbors seem to agree. "They took all the land, the olive trees and the land, which was full of fig and almond trees and I couldn't do anything but cry," said farmer Ahmed Yousef in the northern West Bank. Nearby, cranes placed posts with electronic sensors into deep holes.

Militants who have suspended a campaign of suicide bombings during an uprising for independence said the outcome of Bush-Sharon meeting showed that neither was serious about peace.

"There is a conspiracy between the aggressive minds of Israel and the United States against Palestinian hopes and independence," said Abdel-Aziz Rantissi, a leader of the militant Islamic movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The militants' reaction pointed to trouble ahead for Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who had coaxed them into a three-month truce.

Bush said after talks with Abbas Friday the barrier would make it hard to develop confidence between the two sides. But Bush did not publicly censure Sharon Tuesday.

While the Palestinians have pressed for prisoner releases and an end to construction work on Jewish settlements, the Israelis have demanded that Abbas dismantle militant groups.

Tuesday, Bush appeared to support Sharon's hardline approach, though Palestinians say Abbas does not have the public support or means to confront the militants.

Powell took a softer line. "He (Abbas) will do it in a way that is consistent with his approach to it ... in a way that keeps the Palestinian Authority unified behind his efforts."

(China Daily  July 31, 2003)