MIDDLE EAST Palestinians urge Sharon to stick with peace plan

The Israeli leader has hinted at various moves regarding West Bank land.
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Palestinian officials called on Israel to stick to an internationally backed peace plan ahead of a much-anticipated speech by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to explain his ideas about unilateral Israeli moves in the West Bank if peace talks fail.
Violence continued early today when Israeli troops conducting searches killed four armed Palestinians in clashes in the West Bank city of Nablus, a military spokeswoman said. Palestinian security sources said one of the dead was an unarmed baker.
The military said one man ran toward troops with an explosive and was shot as he approached, while in a separate case, three masked men with automatic weapons shot at soldiers from a rooftop and were killed by return fire.
Potential moves
Sharon began talking of undefined "unilateral steps" last month, indicating that he might consider moving West Bank Jewish settlements while seizing control of swaths of the West Bank.
He has said such moves would not be as generous as a negotiated settlement but indicated that they would involve painful concessions to ensure Israel's security.
Channel 10 TV reported that Sharon would send his speech to Washington before delivery today at a security conference in Herzliya. A spokesman for Sharon refused to comment.
Palestinians and the United States have harshly criticized Sharon's go-it-alone concept, linking it to the security barrier Israel is building. It would slice deep into the West Bank in several places to protect settlements.
Sharon has said the separation barrier is meant only to keep Palestinian bombers and other attackers away. But Palestinians, who claim all of the West Bank, call the barrier project a scheme to seize land.
Israel conquered the West Bank of the Jordan River and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war and has held them since.