TEL AVIV - Thirty-six prominent Israeli authors have publicly backed a group of air force pilots condemning air attacks on populated Palestinian targets, Israel Radio reported.

The government and military leaders should listen to the pilots, even in regards to the attacks that target terrorists, said the authors. Israel should strive to negotiate with the Palestinians to end the occupation, said the authors.

Meanwhile, Israel unveiled plans yesterday to build more than 600 new homes in Jewish settlements, drawing fresh Palestinian condemnation.

The government published tenders for a series of building projects planned for three West Bank settlements on occupied land in defiance of a US-backed 'roadmap' peace plan that calls for a halt to construction at settlements.

"This is evidence that the roadmap has been fully assassinated by an Israeli policy of settlement expansion, to which the United States is a witness," Palestinian cabinet member Yasser Abed Rabbo said.

Palestinian anger had already been stoked by the Israeli government's endorsement on Wednesday of plans for the next phase in a 350km network of electronic fences and concrete walls that cuts deep into the West Bank.

"Israel is pursuing its crimes by expanding this racist and Nazi wall that expropriates our land," Palestinian President Yasser Arafat told reporters at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

He accused Israel of "sabotaging and destroying the peace process" and appealed to the "Quartet" of Middle East peacemakers - the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations - to stop Israel going ahead with the project.

Washington, which has threatened to deduct part of the cost of the barrier from $9 billion in US loan guarantees, shied away from public criticism of the Israeli decision but said it would go on discussing its concerns with Israeli officials.

But European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana deplored the barrier plan. "I do not think we can accept a wall that creates decisions on the ground about land that... has not been divided," he told Reuters during a visit to Poland.