Sharon in bid to save Gaza pullout plan

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon launched new efforts yesterday to widen his shaky coalition after a stinging setback in parliament that complicated his plan to withdraw from some occupied territory.

A 53-44 vote to reject Mr Sharon's speech opening a new session of parliament on Monday was only symbolic. But it signalled trouble ahead for the pullout plan and will force him to revamp his government or resort to early elections, confidants said.

Mr Sharon sent Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, his closest ally in a Likud party split over whether to "disengage" from conflict with Palestinians, to meet the spiritual leader of the religious Shas party to explore whether it might join the government.

At a raucous session of the Knesset, Mr Sharon vowed to put his plan for uprooting all 21 Jewish settlements in tiny Gaza and four of 120 enclaves in the West Bank to a vote of parliament on October 25 despite far-right resistance imperiling his tenure.

Mr Sharon lost the vote mainly because of mutinous pro-settler Likud nationalists as well as Labour and other left-wing deputies protesting at economic policies in the speech.

But the defeat attested to Mr Sharon's faltering grip on power, with his one remaining right-wing coalition partner threatening to jump ship if parliament enacted his plan.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef of Shas ruled against accepting withdrawals. But the Haaretz daily quoted party sources as saying this could change if Shas believed "disengagement" could save lives of Israelis after four years of Palestinian revolt.

Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party with 11 legislators in the 120-member parliament, has been a maker and breaker of Israel's notoriously brittle coalitions. Mr Sharon now holds only 58 Knesset seats after defections by pro-settler nationalist allies.

Palestinians regard a Gaza pullout as insufficient by itself but a step towards the statehood they seek. Contrary to Mr Sharon's vision of a limited pullback, they want all settlements removed from West Bank land that would form the bulk of such a state.

Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Mr Sharon's drubbing in parliament, the first time lawmakers spurned a state of the nation speech by an Israeli premier, meant he would need to expand his government to save his "Disengagement Plan".

Israel has killed 92 Palestinians since sending tanks into northern Gaza two weeks ago to crush militants targeting Israeli border areas with rockets, an offensive Mr Sharon hopes will help take the steam out of hawkish opposition to "disengagement".

Israel yesterday also launched a custom-built radar meant to provide an early warning to residents of a border town reeling from months of rocket salvoes by Gaza militants.

Yesterday night, Palestinian security chief Moussa Arafat survived an assasination attempt as his convoy left a security compound in Gaza City.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the car bomb which some Palestinians suspected may have been carried out by Palestinian factions opposed to Moussa Arafat's appointment.