Israel orders removal of settlement outposts

? Israel ordered police and soldiers to remove six unauthorized Jewish outposts in the West Bank and evict their occupants as a step toward complying with a U.S.-backed peace plan, a senior official said Saturday.

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, meanwhile, Palestinian security officials detained at gunpoint a group of militants who refused a request to leave Yasser Arafat’s compound — an apparent attempt to ease U.S. and Israeli pressure on the Palestinian leader. Arafat has been stuck in the compound for more than a year and a half.

The militants’ refusal to leave as a condition for allowing Arafat to travel illustrated the tough task Palestinian authorities face in reining in militant groups as required by the “road map” peace plan. So far, the Palestinians have not moved to disarm the militants or dismantle their organizations, saying they fear civil war and prefer to use persuasion.

Israel also has skirted key obligations of the road map, a blueprint for ending violence and establishing a Palestinian state by 2005. The plan is backed by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.

An Israeli ministerial committee dealing with another dispute meets today to work out details of a release of several hundred of the 7,700 Palestinian prisoners Israel has detained, including members of Islamic militant groups.

The road map requires Israel to remove the 100 or so small outposts put up in the West Bank and Gaza Strip without government authorization since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took office in March 2001. So far, Israel has only taken down a handful.