Sharon prepares new Gaza withdrawal plan for cabinet

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told a stormy cabinet meeting yesterday that he is preparing a new plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, a week after his Likud Party rejected a proposal to pull out of the area.

The announcement was the clearest indication from Mr Sharon on how he plans to proceed following the May 2 party referendum, in which Likud voters rejected his Gaza withdrawal plan by a 60-40 margin.

The prime minister cancelled a trip to Washington next week to focus on the plan, which he plans to present to his cabinet in about three weeks, officials said.

Mr Sharon's original "disengagement" plan had called for a full withdrawal from Gaza, where 7,500 settlers live amid 1.3 million Palestinians, and an exit from four isolated West Bank settlements. Sharon said the unilateral measures were needed to boost Israel's security in the absence of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

It was unclear how Mr Sharon's new plan would differ from the original proposal.

Hard-liners in the government oppose widespread territorial concessions to the Palestinians, while Justice Minister Yosef Lapid of the moderate Shinui Party has threatened to quit the government if diplomatic efforts don't continue.

"We support the disengagement plan and if we are saying it's all finished, we can't agree with this," Mr Lapid told Israel's Army Radio.

Mr Lapid said a new plan should be broader than the original and suggested it include the renewal of peace talks with the Palestinians.

Mr Lapid, who has led efforts to keep Mr Sharon's disengagement plan on track since the referendum, addressed the ministers prompting two hard-line ministers, Avigdor Lieberman and Benny Elon, to walk out of the meeting saying they did not want to be part of a "pathetic" discussion, participants said.

In Washington, Mr Sharon plans to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro- Israel lobbying group, in mid-May. A meeting with President Bush, who endorsed the Gaza withdrawal plan, was also expected.

In new violence yesterday, Palestinian militants fired a homemade rocket in the northern Gaza Strip that landed near the American school, residents said.

The blast shattered a taxi windscreen, but caused no casualties. Palestinian militants frequently fire rockets from the area into southern Israel. Meanwhile, the Israeli army said that it had discovered a weapons'- smuggling tunnel in Rafah, along the Egyptian border.