Sharon survives votes of no confidence as bomber strikes

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last night survived three no-confidence votes, winning more time to try to restore the parliamentary majority he lost when the moderate Labour Party bolted his coalition last week.

Parliament also approved the appointment of a former army chief, Shaul Mofaz, as the new defence minister, despite criticism from across the political spectrum that Mr Mofaz was too fresh out of uniform to be given the job.

Mr Sharon also renewed a call to ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu to serve as his foreign minister. Mr Netanyahu said he would only take the job if Mr Sharon called early elections a response dismissed by Sharon aides as illogical.

"Taking the nation to immediate elections would be irresponsible," Mr Sharon told legislators from his Likud party. "I hope everyone acts responsibly and doesn't try to make it difficult for a stable government to function."

Parliament voted on three no-confidence motions.

Mr Sharon survived comfortably with the help of the far-right National Union-Israel Beitenu faction which is weighing an offer by Mr Sharon to join the coalition.

The National Union presented Mr Sharon with tough terms for joining his coalition: that he formally cancel Israel's commitment to the 1990s interim peace accords with the PLO and declare the Palestinian Authority those agreements established a terrorist entity.

"This is a good opportunity to change the government's policies," said Avigdor Lieberman, a lawmaker from the party. "If Sharon won't change the basic policies and he won't change anything...why should we join the government?"

However, Mr Sharon insisted yesterday that "the fundamental guidelines and policies of the government will not change".

Mr Sharon has said elections should be held as scheduled, in October 2003.

But Mr Netanyahu made early elections a condition for his accepting Mr Sharon's offer to join the government as foreign minister. Mr Netanyahu argued that stable government is impossible given the current parliamentary makeup and that the governing Likud will emerge from balloting significantly strengthened.

Analysts and political observers generally agreed Mr Netanyahu's move was part of a broader aim to challenge Mr Sharon for Likud's leadership in a primary ahead of any general election, but were divided on whether Mr Sharon would accept the terms.

Meanwhile a suicide bomber killed himself and a bystander in an Israeli shopping mall last night.

Eleven people, including two children, were injured, police and medics said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a spokesman of the Islamic militant group Hamas, said that "the Palestinian people will not stop their resistance until the defeat of the Israeli occupation." The bomber blew himself up just after 6:15pm (1615 Irish time) in Kfar Saba, a town just across the border from the West Bank Palestinian town of Qalqilyia.

One of the injured was in serious condition but the two children were lightly injured, paramedics said.

David Baker, an official in Mr Sharon's office, said the attack was "proof that Palestinian terror knows no limits, specialises in cruelty and specifically targets the innocent."