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Sharon asks president to dissolve parliament

Quits Likud party

AGENCIES, Jerusalem
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asked President Moshe Katsav td dissolve parliament yesterday, paving the way for an eleclion early next year.
Sharon, taking the biggest gamble of his political career, quit the ruling Likud yesterday to lead a new centrist party into the early elections.
Sharon's dramatic move, after the right-wing Likud faction he helped found nearly 30 years ago rebelled against him over a Gaza pullout completed in September, seemed likely to reshape Israeli politics forycars to come.
Victory in an election widely expected in March could free Sharon of far-right constraints in pursuing a land-for-peace agree-mentwith thePalestinians.
But he gave no immediate sign
he intended to change his tough policy toward the Palestinians while seeking to tap into mainstream support for what was the first removal of Jewish settlements from occupied land Palestinians wantforstate.
"I am resigning from the party and forming a new one," Sharon wrote in a letter to Likud's chairman, a party official said.
Several hours earlier, Sharon asked President Moshe Katsav to dissolve parliament and order a new election.
"I believe the election should be held as early as possible," Katsav said after meeting Sharon, who was expected to announce at a news conference at 7:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) formation of the "National Responsibility" party.
Katsav said he would begin consultations immediately with political leaders on moving up an
election originally due by November 2006 and disclose his decision on Sharon's request soon. Sharon made no comment after the meeting.
Katsav must first examine whether any legislator can muster a parliamentary majority and form a new government. But Israeli political analysts said chances were nil.
If Katsav dissolves parliament, Sharon, 77, would remain prime minister until a new one is elected.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minster Nabil said the Palestinian leadership was "watching carefully the unfolding political developments (in Israel) to sec its consequences on the peace process."
Opinion polls indicate it is uncertain Sharon can turn the popularity of the pullout from Gaza - where soldiers and settlers came under daily attack in a 5-year-old Palestinian uprising -- into electoral victory.
"Sharon is the only credible leader with a national base right now and that is a very powerful card Sharon has to play," said political analyst Gerald Steinberg of Bar-Ilan University.
"On the other hand this is totally new territory and third parties have not done well in the past," he said.
Sharon, a former general, has said he would be willing to make "painful concessions" for peace, hinting at future pullouts in the occupied West Bank. But he has refused to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority until it disarms militants.
Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported that in a third term, Sharon -prime minister since 2001 -- would seek to evacuate isolated West Bank settlements while retaining major enclaves in a peace treaty with the Palestinians.
Palestinians fear Sharon aims to set a border unilaterally along the lines of a barrier being built deep inside the West Bank. Israel says the project stops suicide bombers. Palestinians call it a land grab.
Sharon has already begun contacting political allies to join a new party. Israeli media said 14 of Likud's 40 lawmakers, including five cabinet ministers, have agreed to sign on.
Likud chairman Tzachi Hanegbi said the party would choose a new leader as quickly as possible. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who quit as finance minister in Sharon's cabinet over the Gaza pullout, is a top contender.
"The Likud will find a way to unite and regroup its forces," Hanegbi told Reuters.
Sharon has also been wooing veteran peacemaker and veteran coalition ally Shimon Peres, 82, whose November 10 defeat as leader of the centre-left Labour party by union leader Amir Peretz triggered the political upheaval.
Meir Ben-Shaul, a 63-year-old Jerusalem electrician who said he voted for Likud in three elections, was unimpressed by the possibility of another Sharon-Peres partnership.
"I think Sharon's career is over. It's the same with Peres. They are two old people. They should go home and play with the children and grandchildren," Ben-Shaul told Reuters.
(Reuters, AFP)