Associated Press
Friday, October 20, 2006; A18

JERUSALEM, Oct. 19 -- Unauthorized settler outposts in the West Bank would get official government approval under a deal Israel's defense minister is working out, government officials and settlers said Thursday.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz is negotiating with settler leaders on a deal to take down some of the outposts, move others and give authorization to the rest, according to Emily Amrussi, a spokeswoman for the settlers.

The Defense Ministry confirmed that talks with settler leaders are taking place and would continue, saying Peretz initiated them to defuse tension and allow the evacuation of illegal outposts to proceed.

However, the ministry said in a statement that the talks were "not negotiations, but dialogue" and that no agreements had been reached. "We are not negotiating over the enforcement of the law," the ministry said.

Settlers began building outposts in the early 1990s, when Israel declared an official settlement freeze as part of the Oslo peace process. Today there are more than 100 such outposts, which were built against the law though often with the tacit or active participation of government offices and with government funds.

A deal that leaves significant numbers of outposts in place could constitute a violation of Israel's commitments under the internationally backed "road map" plan. Israel said it would dismantle all outposts built after 2001 as part of the plan, but so far has removed only a few, and most of those were rebuilt.

Meanwhile, Israel's military operation along the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt continued Thursday, with no serious clashes reported since soldiers shot and killed two Palestinian fighters Wednesday morning.

The army said the operation was aimed at uncovering tunnels used by Palestinian militants to smuggle weapons into Gaza, and troops have found 13 tunnels since Tuesday.