But while the move set Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on a confrontation path with Jewish settlers he had long championed, the army's demolition of empty caravans on lonely hilltops on Monday drew Palestinian derision.

"This is a theatrical and insignificant step," said Nabil Abu Rdainah, a top aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

The army said it removed "unauthorized structures" at five outposts by early Tuesday and Israel Radio said four other outposts, also uninhabited, would be removed later in the day.

There has been no letup in Israeli-Palestinian violence since Sharon, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and President Bush affirmed the road map at a summit in Aqaba, Jordan on June 4.

Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip shot dead two Palestinian gunmen in an exchange of fire late on Monday after they tried to infiltrate the settlement of Netzarim, the army said.

The road map, the most far-ranging Middle East peace plan in more than two years, calls for an end to violence and reciprocal confidence-building steps including the removal of settler outposts set up since Sharon took office in March 2001 and a freeze on construction inside established settlements.

Israel's Peace Now group put the number at outposts at about 60, half uninhabited. None of the outposts was authorized by the Israeli government and settler leaders said the Defense Ministry slated 15 for removal on a list it presented to them.

APPEAL FOR CALM

Before army demolition crews entered Neve Erez and Amona North, both near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas took his own step toward meeting terms of the peace plan, appealing at a news conference for militants to stop attacking Israelis.

The Islamic group Hamas rebuffed Abbas's call to end what it describes as resistance activities in a 32-month-old uprising for statehood but said it would consider renewing talks it had broken off with the reformist premier after the Aqaba summit.

Denouncing Hamas and other militant groups as extremists who wanted to "blow up peace," Bush said in Washington: "I understand there's going to be a lot of work to do, but I'm prepared to believe."

Palestinian sources said Egyptian security chief Omar Suleiman would visit the West Bank on Wednesday to mediate between Abbas and militant factions.

At Neve Erez, an army tractor tore apart two caravans in the uninhabited outpost. Soldiers pulled down a water tower at Amona North but did not touch mobile homes housing some 100 settlers about 200 yards away.

Benzi Lieberman, leader of the Yesha Council representing the 220,000 settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, said settlers would not fight the soldiers but would bring tens of thousands of protesters to rallies in settlements and Israeli cities.

Settlers also oppose the road map's call for a construction freeze at Israel's 145 government-authorized settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and creation by 2005 of what Sharon pledged at the summit would be a viable Palestinian state.

(China Daily June 10, 2003)