"Five soldiers were lightly injured when they entered the outpost to remove one caravan," an army spokeswoman told AFP, saying they had been "beaten" by Jewish settlers.

Around 150 angry settlers clashed with dozens of troops sent to clear an illegally-built structure in the Kfar Tapuah Maarav outpost some 10 kilometres (six miles) south of Nablus in the northern West Bank.

Six settlers were also treated for light injuries, said an AFP correspondent at the scene, while 14 were reportedly arrested.

Although Kfar Tapuah Maarav is an illegal outpost, it does not figure on an Israeli list of nine wildcat outposts to be removed, and troops only moved in to dismantle a single structure which was built without authorisation.

Until now, the makeshift room made out of bits of plywood has been used as a synagogue dedicated to Rabbi Meir Kahane, a Jewish ultranationalist whose Kach party was banned for racism in 1988 and who was assassinated in Manhattan in 1990.

Army radio said the removal of the synagogue was authorised by Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz two weeks ago. Settlers had challenged the decision at the Supreme Court, but their petition was rejected, it said.

As troops tried to dismantle the outpost, Israel's two most senior rabbis, Ashkenazi Grand Rabbi Yona Metzger and his Sephardic counterpart Shlomo Amar, telephoned a protestors to convey their distress at "the destruction of the synagogue."

Mofaz and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday authorised the removal of another three wildcat outposts, bringing the total scheduled for demolition to nine.

So far, however, not a single outpost has been removed, largely because of a rush of appeals to the supreme court.

WAR.WIRE