JERUSALEM – A top adviser to Prime Minister Sharon said in a published interview yesterday that Israel’s planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip is meant to delay the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state indefinitely, and claimed America supports the policy.

The blunt assessment by Dov Weisglass, Sharon’s point man with the Bush administration, came a week into a broad Israeli incursion in Gaza.

Mr. Weisglass’s comments, published in the Ha’aretz daily, contradicted the Israeli government’s assurances that it remains committed to the American-backed “road map,” which calls for an independent Palestinian Arab state alongside Israel but has been stalled for months amid violations by both sides.

Mr. Weisglass’s remarks angered the Israeli left and prompted Mr. Sharon’s office to issue a damage-control statement saying Israel remains committed to the road map. However, in a newspaper interview last month, Mr. Sharon said Israel is no longer following the plan.

In a radio interview yesterday, Mr. Weisglass said his comments were taken out of context.

Ha’aretz said the quotes were excerpts from a full interview it plans to print on Friday. The interview included the most far-reaching comments by a senior Israeli official on Mr. Sharon’s policy toward the Palestinian Arabs.

“The significance of the disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process,” Mr. Weisglass was quoted as saying.

“Effectively, the whole package called the Palestinian state with all that entails has been removed indefinitely from our agenda. And all this with authority and permission – all this with a presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress.”

“What I effectively agreed to with the Americans was that part of the settlements would not be dealt with at all,” Mr. Weisglass was quoted as saying.

Mr. Sharon has proposed withdrawing from Gaza and four small West Bank settlements as part of his disengagement plan meant to separate Israelis and Palestinian Arabs after four years of fighting. Mr. Sharon refuses to negotiate with the Palestinian Arabs, claiming the current leadership is not a serious peace partner.

Mr. Sharon has said he hopes the withdrawals, planned for next year, will enable Israel to consolidate control of large blocks of West Bank settlements.

In other developments, an American official said yesterday that President Assad is offering to make peace with Israel and that he is ready to cooperate with America in stabilizing Iraq.

Martin Indyk, who was a senior State Department official during the Clinton administration, said he met last month with Mr. Assad in Damascus and detected a “clear change” in the Syrian president’s views on a number of fronts.

In the past, Mr. Indyk said, Syria had insisted that any peace talks should resume where they left off during the Clinton administration – with Israel offering to give up all of the Golan Heights, a strategic area Israel won in the 1967 Mideast war.

On peacemaking, Mr. Assad offered to hold talks with Israel without preconditions, Mr. Indyk said. He also said Mr. Assad had dropped a demand that Israel reach an agreement with Palestinian Arabs before resuming negotiations with Syria.

Mr. Undyk also said Mr. Assad spoke about reforming his own government.