Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon urged his Likud Party Thursday to vote for a governing alliance with the Labor Party, warning that failure to do so would force snap elections and derail his Gaza withdrawal plan. 

Internal polls predict victory for Sharon in a crucial ballot by the rightist Likud's Central Committee on whether to allow him to open talks with center-left Labor on joining a unity coalition to rebuild his shattered government.

But mindful that voter turnout could affect the outcome, Sharon made a last-ditch appeal to the 3,000 committee members not to tie his hands.

"This would lead to elections. Elections now would be a major mistake," Sharon told Israel Radio.

"We are in the midst of an initiative to evacuate the Gaza Strip ... All of these steps would be stopped."

"This campaign is not over. This campaign is underway and therefore apathy is dangerous and everyone must vote in favor of the resolution," Sharon added.

Voting went ahead after a Tel Aviv court rejected an 11th-hour challenge by Likud hardliners to delay the vote.

The Likud committee members were being asked to authorize coalition talks with Labor as well as two ultra-Orthodox parties. Results were expected by late last night.

Likud rebels who oppose Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza and evacuate four of 120 settlements in the West Bank next year have used their influence in the party to obstruct him.

But Sharon hopes that yesterday's non-binding vote will free him of constraints by revoking a Central Committee ban issued in August against bringing Labor into his coalition.

Strike injures militant

A militant leader survived an Israeli missile strike on his car in Gaza yesterday in Israel's first apparent assassination attempt in the Palestinian territories since Yasser Arafat died in a Paris hospital.

Jamal Abu Samhadana, head of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), an umbrella group of militant factions, was lightly wounded in the attack that also injured two of his aides, witnesses and medics said.

The Gaza-based group, responsible for numerous attacks on Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers during a four-year-old Palestinian uprising, said: "Our revenge will be painful and like an earthquake ".

It was the first time Israel had targeted a top-level militant chief since Arafat died on November 11 in a Paris hospital.

Israel had promised to restrain its military operations in the West Bank and Gaza as long as calm prevailed during the run-up to a January 9 election for Arafat's successor. But Israel reserved the right to strike at what it called "ticking bombs."

Five Palestinians were shot dead Wednesday night by Israeli troops in the southern Gaza Strip.

Israeli troops noticed four Palestinians approaching the borderline between the southern Gaza town of Rafah and Egypt, said the sources, adding that the soldiers immediately opened fire at them, killing three and the fourth escaped.

Palestinian security sources said the four could be arms smugglers who were trying to smuggle arms from Egypt into the Gaza Strip.

(China Daily December 10, 2004)