Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would need to carry out a large-scale withdrawal from the West Bank after next year's initial disengagement from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank, local newspaper Jerusalem Post reported on Thursday.

"There is no option of sitting and doing nothing. Israel's interest requires a disengagement on a wider scale than what will happen as part of the current disengagement plan," Olmert told the paper.

However, he declined to describe the extent of a "second" disengagement plan but said it could be a useful solution to future impasse in the negotiations with the Palestinian National Authority.

Olmert also said that the second withdrawal will go ahead whether or not a viable peace partner emerges on the Palestinian side.

"We could very well have negotiations and these negotiations might break down, but Israel will continue to progress, by carrying out unilateral moves, including the possibility of further withdrawals that are in the interest of the state," Olmert said.

It was one of the clearest indications from a senior Israeli official that the disengagement would be only the first step of a future Israeli pullout from most of the West Bank.

According to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's pullout plan,Israel will withdraw from all the 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four of 120 in the West Bank by the end of 2005.