JERUSALEM, Sept 8 : The Israeli cabinet gave its approval Wednesday to the first of three West Bank troop withdraw: ,1s under the new peace accord with the Palestinians, the office of Prime Minister Ehud Barak said, reports AFP. «

> The withdrawal was approved by 17 ministers with only one. the pro-settler Housing Minister Yitzhak Le>y, voting against and one abstention. Four other ministers did not attend the cabinet meetin’.

'We are giving away land that is dear to us .... and for which we have fought." Barak said befcre the vote.

"But we are a responsible government and are due to move forward to a permanent settlement and peace accords across the whole region to assure Israel's security and its future," he said.

'This is why we have to take difficult decisions," he added. , Under the first pullout ex-

pected within a week — the cabinet did not specify a date — Israel is to hand over seven percent of the West Bank to Palestinian administration although Israel will retain security control over the area.

The Palestinians will control in whole or in part 36 percent of the West Bank.

The so-called Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum signed in Egypt on Sunday, provides for Israel to withdraw gradually from 11 percent of the West Bank, giving the Palestinians a total of 40 percent.

The Israeli press reported that the territory expected to be transferred in the first stage comprises pockets of land around Hebron, to the north of Ramallah, to the south and west of Nablus and to the south of Jenin.

Maps detailing the areas are to be submitted to Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority on Wednesday. Barak's office

said.

Ultra-orthodox party threatens to quit

Israeli govt

Meanwhile, the powerful ultra-Orthodox party Shas, which hpad7 members of .parliament, on Tuesday threatened to quit the Israeli government of Ehud Barak in a row over school funding, public television reported.

The four Shas ministers in the government boycotted a meeting of the Cabinet that was voting on next year's budget.

Shas is demanding that the education ministry transfer 25 million shekels (six million dollars) to the independent schools system that it controls.

Education minister Yossi Sarid refused to do so. explaining that "such an operation is not legal in that the management of the Shas schools does not comply with the norms in place".