West Bank Settlements

WASHINGTON--The Carter administration has sent a "strong protest" to Israel in response to the Israeli government's decision to build three military outposts on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, an administration official said Tuesday.

The official, who asked not to be named, said the move would not make it any easier to resolve the obstacles to a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

The Israeli move was seen in Washington as an effort by Begin to pacify the right wing of his Likud coalition.

At the State Department, spokesman Hodding Carter would say only that the administration had received conflicting reports about Israel's plans and that the U.S. position that settlements in these territories were illegal and an obstacle to peace had not changed.