sharon dismisses peace as unimportant

JERUSALEM, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon has dismissed as unimportant a quartet of international
peace envoys from the United States, Russia, the European Union
and the United Nations.
Asked by the U.S. magazine Newsweek what he thought of the
quartet's Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, Sharon said: "Oh, the
quartet is nothing! Don't take it seriously! There is (another)
plan that will work."
There was no immediate comment from any of the four quartet
members, including Washington, Israel's closest ally.
In the interview, published on Sunday, Sharon reiterated his
peace blueprint allowing for a Palestinian state with temporary
borders if "terrorism" stops and turning President Yasser Arafat
into a figurehead as part of Palestinian Authority reforms.
The Israeli leader, whose rightist Likud party is ahead in
opinion polls ahead of a general election nine days away, said
that once there was a complete halt to violence he would be
ready to negotiate the final borders of a Palestinian state.
Palestinians have rejected Sharon's peace vision as a sham
intended to sabotage efforts to broker a peace deal to establish
a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
lands captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
The "quartet" of peace envoys has drafted a series of
"roadmaps" towards ending more than two years of violence since
a Palestinian uprising for statehood began in September 2000
shortly after peace treaty negotiations deadlocked.
The United States, trying to muster a coalition against
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, has decided to delay releasing
the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan until after Israel's general
election.