The publisher of an authorised best-seller about North Korean defector and human rights activist Shin Dong-hyuk has said it is anxious for an “accurate understanding” of the facts after he retracted substantial parts of his story.

Likud’s governing body met today for the first time since Ariel Sharon’s defection, hoping to pick up the pieces of a shattered party even as the race to succeed him dissolved into a fury of backbiting.