The mayor of the West Bank settlement bloc of Ariel, Ron Nahman, on Wednesday accused Defense Minister Amir Peretz of trying to strengthen his own standing with voters by proposing that the town be left outside of the separation fence.

"Minister Peretz, whose days in the ministry are numbered, is trying to create political spin and make himself attractive to his constituents by endangering the lives of tens of thousands of Israeli citizens living in Ariel."

Nahman was responding to a Haaretz report that revealed that the defense establishment may abandon the plan to include bulges in the separation fence - aimed at keeping major settlement blocs such as Ariel, Immanuel and Kedumin within the Israeli side of the divide.

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Officials currently re-evaluating the "bulge" proposal are considering an alternative plan, which proposes to seal the fence near the settlements of Elkana and Beit Aryeh. The proposal includes the construction of a new parameter fence around the settlements, which would be left on the Palestinian side of the fence.

The proposed salients or bulges, meant to keep Ariel and the other settlements within the Israeli side of the fence, constitute a substantial deviation from the proposed course of the fence that was first approved by the cabinet in 2003. The course, later revised according to a High Court of Justice ruling, originally ran along the Green Line.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has of late approved additional changes to the course of the fence, adding two salients to the Israeli side of the divide: one from Beit Aryeh to Ariel, and another from Alfei Menashe to Kedumin. The fence, however, has not been completed and the 6-kilometer stretch running along the two proposed bulges remains open, making it harder for security forces to seal the area.

In an effort to solve the problem, Defense Minister Amir Peretz's aide for diplomatic affairs, Hagai Alon, contacted Colonel (res.) Shaul Arieli and requested him to compile an alternative course for the fence.

In his proposal, submitted late last month, Arieli states that the American Administration opposes the current route of the fence, which the cabinet approved last year, because it violates the territorial contiguity of the future Palestinian state. He added that future petitions against the current route of the fence would be hard to dismiss, given the humanitarian problems it poses. Arieli did add that the High Court of Justice recognized the security needs dependent on the construction of the fence, as long as it ran along the Green Line.