Sharon desperate for alternative solution

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is scrambling to come up with alternatives after his Likud Party overwhelmingly rejected a withdrawal from all of the Gaza Strip, a government official said today.

In Gaza, an Israeli missile strike killed two Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy, and wounded 22 others, in a refugee camp.

Sharon had promoted a "unilateral disengagement" from the Palestinians for several months, and the hard-line Likud's rejection of the plan in a referendum on Sunday dealt a tough blow to the prime minister.