Sharon rejects call for Gaza referendum

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rejected calls from four cabinet ministers yesterday for a referendum on his plan to withdraw from occupied Gaza after it won parliamentary approval.

Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and three other ministers gave Mr Sharon a two-week deadline to call for a popular vote or said they would quit, minutes after parliament approved the plan on Tuesday.

"I will never give in to pressures and threats and not accept any ultimatums," Mr Sharon told Haaretz newspaper. "My position on the referendum is unchanged. I am opposed because it will lead to terrible tensions and a rupture in the public."

The departure of Mr Netanyahu, Mr Sharon's main Likud rival, and the other ministers could make it hard for the Prime Minister to avoid new elections or a leadership struggle within his right-wing party.

One alternative might be to form a coalition with the centre-left opposition Labour party, which overwhelmingly backs his plan to evacuate troops and settlers from Gaza and four of the 120 settlements in the West Bank next year.