US Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer told Israel Radio's Shmuel Tal Friday that the report of his statements about the status of the settlements in the West Bank after disengagement in Yediot Ahronotwas "filled with errors." He emphasized that he had not cast doubt on the understanding reached between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and US President George W. Bush. He said rather that he was addressing the general policy of the United States towards the future of the large settlement blocs.

Kurtzer talked with senior officials in the Prime Minister's Office on Friday and clarified the statements that were quoted in his name in Yediot Ahronot.

A press release from the US Embassy distributed on Friday explicitly responded to the report, "The Yediot Aharonot article on Ambassador Kurtzer's meeting with Foreign Ministry cadets on February 24th is so full of errors and misrepresentations that ordinarily the Ambassador would not comment.

However, given the media coverage this story has received, the Ambassador wants to clarify what was said and what was not said to the junior officers’ training course.The paper's claim that the Ambassador called into question the understandings reached between President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon last April 14th is false. The Ambassador said that all the major understandings, including those relating to settlement blocs, were incorporated in a letter from President Bush to Prime Minister Sharon on April 14, 2004.

Any future final status resolution must reflect the new realities on the ground, especially the existing major Israeli population centers. Therefore, as the President stated in his letter, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of negotiations will be a full and complete return to the 1967 lines. This remains the policy of the US Government.

The paper's claim that the Ambassador predicted the collapse of the Government of Israel following disengagement is false.  Earlier it was reported that Kurtzer had refuted reports from political sources in Jerusalem that there was an understanding with the United States about leaving blocs

“In(Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon's office, they don't understand what we are saying," Kurtzer reportedly said during the meeting with Foreign Ministry cadets in Jerusalem, Army Radio reported. He also stressed that after the implementation of the disengagement plan, the US would demand from both Israel and the Palestinians to then return to implementing the road map.

In a dig at Israeli diplomats, Kurtzer reportedly said, "They have a tendency to return again and again to the same topics, and at the beginning of every meeting they repeat the mantra - Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel.”

It was also reported Friday that Kurtzer has estimated that Sharon's government would not survive until the end of its term and would fall after disengagement.

Yediot Ahronot responded to accusations of wild inaccuracies in their reporting saying that there was an official, professional Foreign Ministry stenographer recording the Kurtzer-cadets meeting and that their quotes exactly match the official protocol, Israel Radio reported.

Kurtzer is scheduled to speak with Sharon via telephone to personally clarify his remarks and assure the prime minister of the US's continued support.

In response to Kurtzer's statements prior to his clarification, Knesset Member Arye Eldad (National Union) said on Friday, "The prime minister's great fraud has been uncovered. Israel is not getting a thing in exchange for the transfer, and this is the time to appoint an investigative committee to determine the true motives of the disengagement plan.”

MK Zehava Gal-on (Yahad) said that it is good that the US is dispelling the cloud cover, "The cessation of the total occupation is the only solution to the conflict which will garner international support.”

MK Eliezer Sandberg (Shinui) said Friday that Kurtzer's response shatters Sharon and Dov Weisglass's illusion, "The time has come that the prime minister reveal his real intentions regarding Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Golan.”

On Thursday, Washington sources said that the Bush Administration did not plan to publicly confront the Israeli government over newly approved plans to build 3,500 new homes to the west of Ma'aleh Adumim.According to the sources, quoted on Israel Radio, the administration, while opposed in principle to all expansion of settlements and to the new building at Ma'aleh Adumim in particular, does not want to spark a row on the issue with Sharon so as not to further complicate his efforts to push the budget through the Knesset this week and thus cement the legislative process ahead of the summer's US-backed disengagement from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank.

Meanwhile, senior Palestinian officials asked two US envoys on Thursday to help block the expansion of Ma'aleh Adumim, saying it endangers peace prospects, undermines their efforts to show that moderation brings results and isolates east Jerusalem - their intended capital.

Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat said the envoys expressed opposition to the Israeli plan to build in an area known as E1 between Ma'aleh Adumim and Jerusalem, which Erekat said would fill in the last piece of empty land.

Erekat told the envoys, National Security Council official Elliott Abrams and David Welch, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, that US opposition was not enough. "You have to pressure Sharon to halt all settlement activities... if you want the peace process to have credibility,” he reported telling them.

There are 32,000 residents of Ma'aleh Adumim. The plan to expand the settlement has been around for about a decade, but was approved earlier this week by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz.

The envoys questioned Sharon about the plan on Wednesday. US officials have repeatedly criticized plans to enlarge Ma'aleh Adumim over the years, and the US-backed "road map" peace plan, presented in 2003 by US President George W. Bush, bans all construction in settlements.

PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei told Abrams and Welch he expected Washington to take a clear position against Israeli settlement expansion plans.

While championing disengagement, Sharon has repeated Israel's claim to all of Jerusalem and hopes to reinforce main settlements in the West Bank, including Ma'aleh Adumim.