JERUSALEM, Aug. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Israel started evacuation of the two remaining West Bank settlements Tuesday morning as thousands of security forces poured into Sa-Nur and its neighboring enclave of Homesh.

    The first families to leave Sa-Nur were bused out in the morning, police said.

    An estimated 5,000 troops and police, bracing for a violent showdown, barged through barbed wire and burning barricades toclear defiant settlers and protestors.

    About 2,000 extremists with an arsenal of weapons are thought to be in the two settlements, determined to foil the last stage of Israel's historic disengagement.

    Within hours of entering Sa-Nur, the troops had cleared away thetents that had housed protesters from outside Sa-Nur, and begun negotiations with the settlers in a bid to complete the evacuation with minimal confrontation.

    Troops from the Home Front Command and Border Police gathered at the settlement's Torah academy, where protesters had welded the doors shut from the inside.

    After a brief exchange, the troops prepared to break down the doors.

    Electricity to the settlement was cut off Tuesday morning, due to fears that a blaze from burning tires in Sa-Nur would reach the power lines overhead.

    More than 15,000 soldiers and police officers are participating in the operation to clear Sa-Nur and Homesh, the last two occupied settlements to be evacuated under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan.

    Israel formally began the pullout operation last Monday morning under the disengagement plan put forward by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the end of 2003, according to which Israel will remove all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four of about 120 in the West Bank.

    Israel declared Monday that the evacuation of all the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip was complete, which went on relatively smooth.

    Two smaller settlements in northern West Bank have also been evacuated voluntarily last week at the beginning of the operation,it was reported.

    On Monday night, Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbasspoke by phone and appreciated the fact that Palestinian and Israeli security forces were cooperating during the withdrawal.

    The two leaders spoke for about five minutes, their first conversation since meeting in Jerusalem on June 21, and agreed to meet soon in a bid to open new pages of bilateral relations.

    Abbas told Sharon "we are your partners for peace", while Sharon pledged that he was committed to peace. Enditem