JERUSALEM, April 18: The Israeli government on Friday published construction bids for 100 homes in two Jewish settlements, one of them deep in the West Bank, in violation of its pledge to freeze settlement expansion.

Palestinian officials said the new construction in the settlements of Ariel and Elkana is undermining US-backed effort to reach a peace deal by the end of 2008.

Since a US-hosted Mideast peace conference in November, Israel has announced several new building projects in areas of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians for their future state. However, Friday’s announcement marks the first time the Israeli government approved construction deep in the West Bank.

An Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the new construction apparently is part of ongoing negotiations between the Israeli government and Jewish settler leaders. Approval for the 100 homes came in return for the recent voluntary evacuation of two small unauthorised settlement outposts by settlers, the official said.

The construction bids were published on Friday in an ad by the Israeli Housing Ministry in the daily Haaretz. Housing Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that “this undermines our efforts to make 2008 the year of peace.”

As part of the US-backed “road map” peace plan, Israel is to dismantle dozens of illegal settlement outposts and halt construction in veteran settlements. Under the same plan, the Palestinians are required to rein in and disarm militants. The Palestinian government in the West Bank says it’s trying hard to meet its road map obligations.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Yediot Ahronot newspaper in an interview published on Friday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is aware of Israel’s position that it will continue to build in so-called settlement blocs. Several of those blocs are close to Israel, but Ariel and Elkana are deep inside the West Bank.

Recent Israeli construction in Jerusalem prompted Abbas to briefly call off the peace talks. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as a future capital but Israel annexed the sector of the city to its capital after capturing it in 1967.

In other developments, Israel sealed the West Bank and Gaza for the duration of the weeklong Jewish Passover holiday which begins at sundown Saturday. Holiday closures are routine, and bar most Palestinians from entering Israel.

In a West Bank raid, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian militant leader, Hani al-Kabi, in the Balata refugee camp next to West Bank city of Nablus.

Al-Kabi had fled a Palestinian jail a month ago, violating the conditions of a deal with Israel that would have granted him amnesty. An Islamic Jihad was seriously wounded in the same raid, medics said.

The Palestinian Authority wants Israeli troops to halt such raids in areas where Palestinian security forces are seeking to establish control, particularly the Nablus area. However, the Israeli military says Palestinian forces are not doing enough yet to rein in militants.

POLICE STATIONS: Still, Palestinian security forces will be able to reopen 20 police stations in rural areas of the West Bank, for the first time in eight years of fighting. About 500 Palestinian police officers will deploy in West Bank villages, said Peter Lerner, an Israeli military official. Overall security control in these areas will remain in Israeli hands, but Palestinians now will have presence to maintain public order and enforce the law.

Also on Friday, a press photographer was injured in the leg by a rubber-coated steel pellet fired by Israeli troops trying to break up a weekly protest against the construction of Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank, witnesses said. Other protesters participating in the march near the village of Bilin suffered from tear gas inhalation, said a protest organizer, Abdullah Abu Rahma.—AP