Peres backs Sharon

Veteran Israeli statesman Shimon Peres announced yesterday he was throwing his support behind Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in March elections and ending his own political activity in the Labour Party.

Mr Peres's widely expected move, following his surprise defeat in a Labour leadership ballot on November 9, was a vote of confidence by the Nobel peace laureate in Mr Sharon's pledge to make "painful concessions" for peace with the Palestinians.

"I ask myself what is the main issue facing Israel in coming years," Mr Peres told a news conference. "I have no doubt this is the inevitable intersection of peace and diplomatic progress."

Calling Mr Sharon the most suitable person for the job of peacemaking, Mr Peres, 82, said: "I have therefore decided to support his candidacy and cooperate with him in achieving these objectives."

Israeli media reports said Mr Sharon would offer Mr Peres the job of peace envoy if the Prime Minister's new Kadima party won the March 28 election.

"My activities in the (Labour) party have come to an end," Mr Peres said, stopping short of formally announcing his resignation from the party. He did not say if he would be joining Kadima. As Labour leader and Israel's vice premier, Mr Peres helped Mr Sharon complete a unilateral pullout of troops and Jewish settlers in Gaza last September despite protests in Mr Sharon's former Likud party that such a withdrawal only rewarded Palestinian violence.

Twice prime minister, but never elected to the position, Mr Peres was visibly stunned when trade union chief Amir Peretz, a Moroccan-born Jew, scored an upset victory in the race for a Labour leadership long dominated by Jews of European descent.

Commenting on Mr Peres's decision to press ahead with a new partnership with Mr Sharon, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said the election was an internal Israeli affair.

But Mr Erekat added: "I hope that once the elections are over within Israel, the Israelis will have chosen a government that is willing to re-engage in a meaningful peace process that will end the occupation and the conflict."

Mr Sharon, in a gamble that could reshape Israeli politics for years to come, quit the Likud last week, saying he could not push for peace with the Palestinians while "wasting time" battling far-right rivals in the movement he co-founded in 1973.