TEL AVIV, January 9, 2007 (WAFA)-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that it would be more practical to achieve a two-state solution through negotiations rather than unilateral withdrawal, Haaretz daily reported Tuesday.

In an interview with the Chinese News Agency Xinhua, the daily reported that the prime minister said that he believes in the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. In order to achieve this, he added, Israel will have to withdraw from a large part of the territories that it controls today, and "we are ready to do this."

Olmert has already said that his convergence plan, which called for a unilateral pullout from most of the West Bank, has been shelved, and he has described the withdrawals from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip as failures, according to the daily.

The Primer recently expressed his disappointment with the results of Israel's two unilateral withdrawals, saying that the violence that broke out in both Lebanon and the Gaza Strip in recent months convinced him that there is no point in any future unilateral moves of this kind, the daily concluded.

M.H.(14:00 P)(12:00 GMT)