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Hearing on Israeli barrier ends

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Arab and Muslim nations urged the world court Wednesday to deliver a decisive verdict against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank, leading to the barrier's destruction and the prosecution of those who planned it.

Concluding three days of hearings, the 15 judges of the International Court of Justice retired to begin deliberations on the legality of the structure, but reaching a decision may take months.

Although the court's opinion is not binding, Arab advocates hope the United Nation's highest judicial body will issue recommendations that could be acted upon by the Security Council. While any such action could be vetoed by the United States, even a failed U.N. resolution against the barrier would represent a public relations victory.

The final testimony in the hearings - and among the most strident - came from the 22-member Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a grouping of 57 Muslim nations.

Israel, which says the barrier is meant to stop suicide bombers, stayed away from the courtroom, saying the proceedings initiated by the U.N. General Assembly in December were loaded against it.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon this week dismissed The Hague process as "hypocrisy" and pledged to complete the barrier, now one-fourth finished, regardless of the judges' ruling.

The United States and the European Union also avoided the oral hearings after submitting written arguments that the issue is political and should be left for negotiations.

Hearings began Monday, one day after a suicide bomber killed 11 people on a Jerusalem bus - an act Israel called a more compelling argument for the barrier than any it could make in The Hague.

WASHINGTON - The United States and Israel are discussing a fresh approach to Mideast peace in which the Bush administration would embrace Israel's proposal to give up settlements in Gaza as a way of encouraging Palestinians and Arab states to take their own steps toward peace, the Washington Post reported, quoting unnamed senior U.S. and Israeli officials.

The plan would represent an acknowledgment that productive talks between Israel and the Palestinian leaders are not possible at this moment, and that unilateral steps proposed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on the settlements could provide an interim step that presents the best hope of progress.