Special report: Crisis between Israel and Palestine

    JERUSALEM, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reiterated on Sunday that his new coalition government would withdraw more settlements from the occupied West Bank in order to guarantee a solid Jewish majority and defensible borders.

    "In the coming years we'll be changing the State of Israel's patterns of existence in order to safeguard it as a country with a solid Jewish majority and borders we can defend," Olmert said at a ceremony marking his move to the prime minister's office. Olmert said that the borders "can provide Israel's residents with security and will separate us from those who should be living alongside us and not within us."

    The prime minister expressed his resolution in the new government's future plans, saying that "we'll act with great fortitude and without stopping, even if we need to address immense obstacles."

    Although "the scope of this mission is unprecedented", the overwhelming majority of the Israelis back his plan, he added. Olmert was welcomed by hundreds of staff working at the prime minister's office as he entered it for the first time.

    Olmert has refrained from entering the office since he took over as acting prime minister four months ago following former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's massive stroke on Jan. 4. Olmert, who was sworn in along with other cabinet ministers on Thursday, said the unilateral pullout of 8,000 settlers from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank last September was a prelude to his convergence plan, which would remove 70,000 settlers from scattered settlements to major settlement blocs in the West Bank. He has vowed to demarcate Israeli final borders by 2010 by evacuating isolated settlements in the West Bank while keeping the major ones with or without peace talks with the Palestinian side. Enditem¡¡