Palestinians worry that further Israeli construction in the Maale Adumim area, a strategic tract of West Bank land near Jerusalem, could later prevent the establishment of a geographically contiguous Palestinian state. "What is happening is very dangerous ... They are expanding the borders of Jerusalem to the Jordan Valley. Who will accept that? Who will accept swapping Gaza for Jerusalem or for the West Bank?" Qurie asked. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said Israel will keep larger West Bank settlement blocs including Arab East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognised internationally. Israel views Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians seek to make the eastern sector the capital of a future state. Qurie said Palestinians welcomed the unilateral Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip, but that Israel's evacuation of 25 settlements there and in the West Bank last week would not alone turn the overcrowded, poor coastal strip into a sovereign state. --More 2229 Local Time 1929 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/286712