Israel and the Palestinians were stepping up contacts Friday after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon admitted some withdrawals from occupied land were inevitable but also warned of unilateral measures.

Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei's bureau chief Hassan Abu Libdeh was due to meet with Sharon's own top adviser Dov Weisglass next week, to pave the way for a first meeting between the two premiers.

The principle of that meeting appeared to have been secured two weeks ago, following the swearing in of Qorei's new cabinet, but Sharon's tough line in a speech to the press Thursday cast some doubt over the summit.

Yet the publicity surrounding an unofficial peace plan due to be signed in Geneva on Monday has forced Sharon to show he is undertaking his own efforts for a resumption of talks.

His son Omri, an MP and influential behind-the-scenes negotiator, met Thursday in London with Palestinian security chief Jibril Rajoub.

Rajoub is a close associate of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whom Israel refuses to deal with and has kept under virtual house arrest in the West Bank town of Ramallah for the past two years.

Rajoub reportedly demanded that the Israeli government halt its construction of the separation barrier in the West Bank, but the prime minister vowed Thursday it would be accelerated.

Despite rare financial sanctions by Washington over the barrier and Israel's settlement activity in the Palestinian territories, a defiant Sharon argued Thursday that the fence was vital to Israel's security.

The Palestinians charge that Israel is using the barrier, which cuts deep into Palestinian territory, to seize the West Bank's fertile areas and pre-empt the borders of a two-state solution.

"I believe that the Israeli prime minister is continuing his policy which aims to impose a reality on the ground through continuing settlements and the building of the wall," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP. A PALESTINIAN CHILD PLAYS WITH A TOY GUN IN FRONT OF THE NEWLY-BUILT CONCRETE WALL, A MEASURE ISRAEL CONTENDS IS NECESSARY TO STOP SUICIDE BOMBERS AND WHICH THE PALESTINIANS CONDEMN AS A LAND GRAB, ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF JERUSALEM, NOVEMBER 27, 2003. PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON SAID THURSDAY ISRAEL WOULD HAVE TO GIVE UP SOME OCCUPIED LAND FOR PEACE WITH PALESTINIANS BUT VOWED TO SPEED UP WORK ON A DISPUTED WEST BANK BARRIER IT DEEMS VITAL TO ITS SECURITY. PHOTO: GIL COHEN MAGEN

However, Sharon admitted that Israel could not maintain its presence everywhere in the occupied territories in the context of a peace deal with the Palestinians.

"It is clear that we will not always be in all the places that we are now. That is the real political horizon for them and for us to reach a stable peace agreement, which starts with a ceasefire," the premier said without elaborating.

The Maariv daily quoted political sources Friday as saying Sharon was planning to dismantle isolated Gaza settlements in exchange for the annexation of large Jewish blocs in the West Bank, should the internationally-backed "roadmap" peace plan remain stalled.

"Sharon is considering a unilateral measure of evacuating settlements from the Gaza Strip in conjunction with applying Israeli law to one or more settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), if negotiations with the Palestinians over the roadmap fail," the newspaper said.

The government coalition is split over the issue, with the powerful centre-right Shinui hinting it could pull out if Sharon clings on to isolated settlements while the ultra-nationalist fringe threatened the same thing should the premier dismantle a single settlement.

Sharon warned Qorei that his Palestinian counterpart was running out of time to prove his intention to deliver on his commitment to crack down on armed Palestinian groups.

Talks between the Palestinian factions on a truce with Israel are due to resume in Cairo on December 2 under the mediation of Egypt's intelligence services.

More than seven weeks have elapsed since the latest suicide bombing in Israel, but smouldering violence in the occupied territories has claimed six Palestinian lives in the last 48 hours.

The latest victim was a member of the Palestinian security services.

Sayad Abu Safra, 35, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday as he tried to prevent a mentally-deranged person from approaching a Jewish settlement, Palestinian medical sources said.

His death raised to 3,626 the number of people killed since the September 2000 outbreak of the Palestinian intifada, including 2,706 Palestinians and 854 Israelis, according to an AFP count.AFP