Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon staked out tough positions on Jewish settlements, suggesting in remarks published yesterday that he will try to hold on to much of the West Bank's heartland.

　　Sharon spoke after US Secretary of State Colin Powell failed to win Israel's acceptance of a new Mideast peace plan, and days before the Israeli leader was to meet his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, in the first summit in nearly three years.

　　Sharon told The Jerusalem Post daily in an interview that Israel would hold on to some settlements in the heart of the West Bank, citing three by name - Beit El, Ariel and Emmanuel.

　　Israeli control over those areas would make it extremely difficult to establish a territorially contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank, a goal of the US-backed plan, the so-called "road map" to Mideast peace.

　　Sharon is to discuss his objections to the plan with US President George W. Bush at the White House next week.

　　Powell said during his weekend visit that settlements would be an issue in the Sharon-Bush talks; the road map demands that Israel dismantle dozens of smaller West Bank outposts and freeze all construction in the 150 veteran settlements in the first stage of the plan.

　　Asked whether Jews would continue to live in Beit El, a settlement just north of the Palestinian town of Ramallah, Sharon said: "Jews will live there." When asked whether they would be under Israeli rule, he said: "Do you see a possibility of Jews living under Arab sovereignty? I'm asking you, do you see that possibility?"

　　Sharon appeared to be reversing himself. In an interview with the Haaretz daily last month, he suggested that Israel was ready to part with West Bank areas of biblical significance, citing Beit El and Shilo.

　　Sharon reiterated his support for the idea of Palestinian statehood, and said Israeli troops would eventually leave West Bank towns they occupied in the past year in response to shooting and bombing attacks.

　　The Palestinians say they are entitled to all the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, the areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

　　The road map calls for an end to Israeli occupation and is based, in part, on an Arab peace initiative that offers comprehensive peace in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from all occupied lands.

　　Israeli police yesterday arrested 13 leaders of Israel's Islamic Movement on charges they funneled millions of dollars to the militant Hamas group, which has carried out scores of suicide bombings.

　　The arrests were expected to heighten tensions between Israel's large Arab minority and the authorities.