Palestinians demonstrate as Annan upbeat over peace plan

KOFI Annan, the United Nations secretary general, voiced confidence about Middle East peace prospects during a visit to Ramallah yesterday, but increasingly embittered Palestinian protesters differed sharply with his assessment.

Israel also announced that Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, had given final approval to extending the separation barrier in the Jerusalem area to include Maale Adumim, the largest settlement in the West Bank.

The route includes a massive settler industrial zone five miles east of Jerusalem’s current municipal border, itself based on an annexation of West Bank land in 1967 that contravened international law.

Mr Annan, who is to participate in the inauguration of a new holocaust museum in Jerusalem today, spoke after talks with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.

Mr Annan said that the UN would push forward with the international peace roadmap, which calls for the establishment of a viable Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.

"The international community is determined to work with both sides to press for implementation of the roadmap, and work to ensure the day when a Palestinian state is established side by side with Israel is not far off," he said.

Hundreds of demonstrators, angered that Mr Annan had not included an inspection of the West Bank separation barrier in his itinerary, protested outside Mr Abbas’s compound while the meeting took place. "Bring down the wall," said one of the signs.

Mr Abbas is due to begin negotiations in Cairo today with Palestinian factions in a bid to shore up a ceasefire to which he committed at last month’s summit with Mr Sharon in Egypt.

But the Israeli prime minister last night dismissed the move. "The ceasefire the Palestinians are working for does not give up the terror option, and is not a solution, and to this we cannot agree," Mr Sharon said.