Israel will insist on the removal of illegal West Bank outposts even if physical force is required, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday.

Barak made the remarks during a Tel Aviv meeting with settler leaders, who requested that Israeli Defense Ministry lift the ban on construction in settlements.

The defense minister said he preferred to remove the outposts by way of dialogue with the settler leaders.

"If it won't be by dialogue though, we will act swiftly and aggressively to enforce the law," he was quoted by local daily The Jerusalem Post as saying.

Israeli defense officials would not say how long Barak planned to allocate for a dialogue with the settlers, at the end of which he would order the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Police to evacuate the outposts.

"We can not compromise when it comes to enforcing the law," said the defense minister. "A sovereign country needs to uphold the law and impose the state's authority on its citizens."

Barak added that the illegal outposts caused damage to Israel in the international arena and weakened the settlement movement in the West Bank.

Therefore, he said, the problem of the illegal outposts should be addressed first and foremost.

According to local daily Ha'aretz, some 100 outposts, set up independently by Jewish settlers without formal government approval, are scattered throughout the West Bank.

These outposts exist next to the 121 authorized West Bank settlements, which are legal under Israeli law, said Ha'aretz.

The 2003 road map agreement authored by the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators -- the United States, Europe, United Nations and Russia -- calls on Israel to dismantle all outposts erected since March 2001 and to freeze all construction in the other settlements.

The Netanyahu government has said it will abide by the road map, but not move on to serious negotiations on a final peace deal until all of its preliminary clauses are met. Under it, the Palestinians are called on to fight militants.