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Sharon seeks pullout-plan compromise

Palestinians carry a seriously wounded militant to the treatment room at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, yesterday. An Israeli attack helicopter fired a missile early yesterday at a group of armed Palestinians in the Khan Younis refugee camp, killing two and wounding at least 17, witnesses said. PHOTO: AP

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took his first steps yesterday towards amending a US-backed Gaza pullout plan that his Likud party rejected, holding consultations with Cabinet ministers on a new blueprint.

Sharon met Justice Minister Yosef Lapid, a senior coalition partner whose Shinui party holds 15 seats in Israel's 120-member parliament.

Lapid had threatened to take the party out of the government if the plan was dropped.

In New York, senior officials of the Middle East peacemaking "Quartet" -- the US, the EU, Russia and the UN -- were to meet later yesterday to try to revive its stalled "road map" in the wake of the Likud vote.

Sharon said on Monday he would alter his pullout proposal, which Likud rank-and-file members voted down by a 60 percent to 40 percent margin in a referendum on Sunday.

"I think that he does not intend to change his policy completely, and in this case we of course can stay in the government," Lapid told Army Radio after seeing Sharon at the prime minister's ranch in southern Israel.

Newspapers reported Sharon would scale back the original plan to evacuate all 21 Gaza settlements and four in the West Bank. Instead, the reports said, three Gaza settlements and two in the West Bank would go.

There was no immediate official comment.

Shimon Peres, head of the main opposition Labour Party, urged Sharon not to water down the plan, predicting the Likud would oppose any ceding of land to the Palestinians.

"They won't let Sharon push through anything serious, even a more limited plan," Peres said, calling for a general election.

Palestinians say the Gaza plan is a ploy by Israel to retain large swathes of the West Bank and any alternative by Sharon will be more of the same.

"This is a new maneuver to extract more concessions from the Americans and taking this course will mean expanding settlements in the Gaza Strip," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Palestinian official.

US President George W. Bush drew Arab rage when, in backing the plan, he said Israel could not be expected to give up all the land it captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Sharon, who promised after his referendum defeat to consult ministers before making any crucial decisions, was also due to hold talks with Likud Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who has been a reluctant supporter of the pullout.

In Washington, a senior official said that the US hoped the Gaza plan would be carried out "in some form." The official also called the proposal "a courageous and historic idea."

Abed Rabbo urged the Quartet at its New York meeting to take steps to implement its road map, which outlines reciprocal steps leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state next year.

In the latest bloodshed, Israeli forces raided the Gaza town of Khan Younis, killing a Palestinian gunman and a 15-year-old bystander and razing 20 homes, medics and witnesses said.

The army said the operation was directed against militants following Sunday's killing by gunmen of a settler and her four daughters in the Gaza Strip.
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