Settlers vow to fight evacuation

Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz warned Jewish settlers late Monday that eight settlements outposts will be dismantled soon, including two which are home to dozens of families.

But Pinhas Wallerstein, one of the leaders of the Yesha (Settlers' Council), said that "the decision to dismantle the inhabited settlements is unacceptable."

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"We will end up with direct confrontation and if needs be there will be a war," Wallerstein told military radio.

Under the internationally-backed "roadmap" peace plan, Israel is obliged to dismantle all the unauthorised settlements set up since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took office in March 2001.

But while a number were dismantled in a blaze of publicity after the peace blueprint's launch in June, the settlement watchdog Peace Now has said many have since been re-established.

Mofaz met Monday with representatives of the Yesha in Tel Aviv.

With Israel under pressure from the United States to act on its roadmap commitments, Mofaz announced that the Migron and Amona outposts in the central West Bank would be dismantled along with six other uninhabited bases.

While the "rogue" or "wildcat" outposts are established by settlers on their own initiative, without any prior government authorisation, most are nevertheless approved later.