Israel will unilaterally evacuate "many" settlements in the West Bank, Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday.

Olmert, quoted on Army Radio, spoke during a tour of the settlements Nili and Na'aleh.

"The four settlements we evacuate in Samaria will not be the last," he said. "If the process develops, we will evacuate many more – not because we want to but to reduce our daily altercations with the rest of the world."

Olmert said, "the occupation of Palestinian territory is eroding Israel's international standing" and that unilateral actions are preferable to agreements with PA Chairman Yasser Arafat or his prime minister, Ahmed Qurei.

Speaking at Metzudat Ze'ev Thursday evening, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed to press ahead with the unilateral disengagement plan. "This is the best possible way for Israel to move forward," Sharon said. Referring to the coalition negotiations, Sharon said there would be no progress on disengagement without a united leadership. "This is what the leaders on the eve of the Six Day War did, when Levi Eshkol called on Menachem Begin to join the government. This was the moment of truth," the prime minister said.

In April, Olmert told a group of some 50 Likud members that the Likud made a mistake in sending 7,500 settlers to the Gaza Strip and thousands of soldiers to guard them. Olmert said that after US President George W. Bush went out on a limb to help Israel, the Likud members must show their appreciation by voting in favor of the plan.

According to Olmert, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would prefer to leave fewer settlements in Judea and Samaria, but his understanding with the Americans is that the more Israel evacuates, the more the US will back Israeli policies.

"After the political price that Bush has paid in getting shunned by the Arab world and criticized in Europe since his meeting with Sharon last week, imagine what would happen if Sharon has to call him up and tell him that the guys in the Likud said no," Olmert said.

"Is there another president who would take a risk for us again? We would get disconnected from the world. Shinui would not remain in a government with no diplomatic plan, Labor wouldn't join the government, and even if we form a government with the religious parties, it wouldn't last."

Olmert admitted that terror would continue after the withdrawal, but said that Israel would continue fighting it regardless. He said the choice is between withdrawing to 1967 lines with a Labor government and a smaller withdrawal now on Israel's own terms.

with Gil Hoffman