91.   Sharon, an ardent supporter of Israeli settlement expansion for decades, long opposed the barrier for ideological reasons.

92.   Settlement expansion has been one of the bitterest points of dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, whose peace negotiations have been deadlocked for more than a year.

93.   Settlement expansion will make it increasingly difficult for Palestinians to set up an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip under a final peace agreement with Israel.

94.   Settlement expansion came up in talks Monday between Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat in the Gaza Strip.

95.   Settlement expansion has become a point of contention between Israel and the Palestinians, who have been grappling with deadlocked negotiations over expanding PLO self-rule into the West Bank.

96.   Sharon met with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Friday, and Albright expressed U.S. unhappiness about Israeli settlement expansion and stalled peace talks with the Palestinians.

97.   Sharon, an ardent supporter of Israeli settlement expansion for decades, long opposed the barrier for ideological reasons, but reluctantly gave his approval this month.

98.   Since then, Palestinian protests and demonstrations against settlement expansion have erupted all across the West Bank.

99.   Such talk angers the Palestinians who say settlement expansion constitutes a violation of U.S.-brokered peace accords.

100.   Still unresolved, however, were a U.S. call for a timeout in Israeli settlement expansion on the West Bank and Gaza and the establishment of a Palestinian airport.