JERUSALEM Ñ Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been presented with a plan calling for the destruction of the Palestinian Authority in two days.

"It's clear that the continuation of the terrorism and the restraint cannot continue for much longer, not more than a few days," Israeli President Moshe Katsav told state-owned Israel Radio on Friday.

The plan presented by National Infrastructure Minister Avigdor Lieberman would launch an Israeli military invasion of at least six major cities in the West Bank and another four in the Gaza Strip, Middle East Newsline reported. Israeli troops would be given at least two days to destroy Palestinian military installations, weapons factories and arresting leaders of the Palestinian insurgency.

The Israeli capture of these cities would be brief, according to the plan. The West Bank would then be divided into a series of provinces administered separately by Palestinians. Israel would then discuss with new Palestinians leaders such issues as self-rule.

"We have to go into Area A [PA territory] and destroy the entire military infrastructure," Lieberman said.

Israeli officials said the military has drawn up similar plans and they are now being reviewed by Sharon. The officials said Sharon is expected to delay any Israeli attack until after he returns from his European tour, which begins on Sunday. The prime minister is scheduled to fly to Berlin, Brussels and Paris.

Katsav was speaking in Washington where he met his U.S. counterpart, George Bush. Israeli sources said Katsav submitted to Bush a request from Sharon for an additional $800 million in U.S. military aid pledged by the previous Clinton administration.

Sharon is under increasing pressure from some of his Likud Party and right-wing ministers as well as Jewish settlers to launch an offensive against the PA. On Thursday, several Israelis were arrested during a demonstration in Jerusalem against the government's policy of restraint. "We need Winston Churchill and not Chamberlain," Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, spiritual leader of the Jewish settlement of Efrat, said.

PA officials said they are preparing for an Israeli onslaught. They said Israel has waged a psychological warfare that seeks to sow strife within the Palestinian leadership.

PA gunners fired mortars early Friday toward Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military, as part of its unilateral ceasefire, did not respond.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned PA Chairman Yasser Arafat and reiterated the U.S. demand to end the eight-month-old war against Israel.

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