"Still it is not a complete plan," Shalom told a media briefing in London yesterday. "The prime minister would like to complete it...(before)...his meeting with President Bush at the end of March in Washington. He has said he will not do it unless it will be agreed with the Americans first."

A senior Israeli source, who asked not to be identified, said Sharon was considering four options for a withdrawal that is likely to be unilateral because the Israeli leader believes he has no Palestinian negotiating partner.

The options are to leave some Jewish settlements in northern Gaza; evacuate all settlements, but keep a military presence on a border strip with Egypt; keep a military presence in Gaza; or remove all settlements and leave no civilian or military presence in the entire Gaza Strip.

"It looks as if it might be a full evacuation, but it is not agreed yet," the source said, referring to the fourth option.

Sharon has publicly spoken only of evacuating most of the 7,500 Jewish settlers living in Gaza enclaves that are hard to defend and setting a new "security line" in the West Bank.

Shalom, due to meet Prime Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Tuesday, said he would visit Egypt next week and Washington in two weeks' time.

He said Israel remained committed to the U.S.-backed "road map" for peace, but would pursue unilateral action, including construction of its controversial West Bank barrier, in the absence of talks with the Palestinians.

Israel says the project, now under scrutiny by the International Court of Justice, has already stopped suicide bombers from reaching its cities. Palestinians say the network of wire and concrete looping into the West Bank is a land grab designed to deny them a viable state.

Shalom, visiting London after talks in Ireland, the current president of the European Union, said Israel would like to win international as well as U.S. approval for its Gaza plan.

The senior Israeli source said U.S. officials had told Israel that Washington would not oppose any unilateral removal of settlements if only because it had opposed them in principle since Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 war.

But it wanted any evacuation to implement U.S. President George W. Bush's vision for Middle East peace and the road map.

The United States opposed any mass relocation of Gaza settlers in the West Bank and any annexation of West Bank settlements in exchange for the dismantling of those in Gaza.