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JERUSALEM, Aug 10 (Reuters) - A peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians will not be reached for at least three to five years, an Israeli newspaper reported Israel's defence minister as saying.

The Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth said on Friday that in private conversations, Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the idea of reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians anytime soon was a "fantasy".

He also said that Israel would not withdraw from the occupied West Bank before finding a solution to Palestinian rocket attacks, "which will take between three to five years".

Barak said he would not approve the removal of roadblocks from the West Bank, despite assurances given this week by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that some of the hundreds of checkpoints would be removed.

Olmert's meetings with Abbas would not lead to a final peace accord, the defence minister said.

"What will determine the situation in the end is if Abu Mazen (Abbas) and (Palestinian Prime Minister) Salam Fayyad are capable of implementing anything in the West Bank," Barak was quoted as saying.

Barak, whose Labour party is a leading partner in Olmert's coalition, said he did not intend to break away from the government, but said that Olmert would appear "detached from reality" when the peace talks broke down.

Barak, a former prime minister, failed to make peace with the Palestinians during his brief tenure despite a lengthy Camp David summit with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and U.S. President Bill Clinton.

As prime minister he ended Israel's 22-year military occupation of southern Lebanon without achieving a peace deal, a move applauded at the time but which later set the stage for Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah guerrillas.

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