Israeli defence minister quits Likud to join Sharon

JERUSALEM - Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has joined Ariel Sharon's new Kadima faction, sowing further disarray in the ruling rightist Likud Party abandoned by the prime minister in the run-up to a March general election.

Mofaz is a popular figure among many Israelis for his tough handling of a 5-year-old Palestinian uprising, although opinion polls had predicted he would lose a Likud leadership race on December 19 to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sharon founded centrist Kadima after quitting Likud last month over a rebellion by hawkish legislators who condemned Israel's Gaza pullout as a surrender to Palestinian militants. Mofaz cited a sense of solidarity as reason for his defection.

"The combination of the prime minister and myself, which has proven itself so persuasively over the past few years, is the right and proper combination to lead Israel over the next few years," Mofaz told reporters.

Mofaz said he would remain defence minister if Sharon wins re-election in the March 28 poll. Army Radio quoted the prime minister as saying he was "pleased with Mofaz's decision".

Surveys predict Likud finishing a distant third to Kadima and the center-left Labour Party.

Netanyahu, who polls show to be the frontrunner to take the Likud helm in a party primary election next week, said Kadima's politicians were bringing "unacceptable norms" into Israeli politics.

"It's all a matter of trade for the (Kadima) politicians who have no morals, no principles and no ideals," Netanyahu told reporters at his Tel Aviv headquarters on Sunday.

On Wednesday, Tzachi Hanegbi, acting Likud chairman and a pillar of its right wing, abandoned the party for Kadima. Veteran statesman Shimon Peres threw his support behind Sharon shortly after being ousted as Labour party leader last month.

REAL PEACE

Since announcing he was leaving Likud, Sharon has reaffirmed his commitment to a US-backed peace "road map" that charts reciprocal steps leading to the creation of a Palestinian state in territories Israel captured in a 1967 war.

But he has said there could be no progress toward peace until the Palestinian Authority fulfilled the road map's call to dismantle militant groups behind anti-Israeli violence. The Palestinians rule out such a crackdown as risking civil war.

Israel has failed to meet its own road map requirement of halting the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, fuelling Palestinian suspicions that Sharon plans to deny them large swathes of occupied land where they seek statehood.

Drawing diplomatic battle lines with Sharon, new Labour chief Amir Peretz said on Sunday if he were elected prime minister, he would achieve a peace accord within four years.

"I will act to reach a permanent settlement between Israel and the Palestinians with the utmost speed," Peretz told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

"We must have a permanent settlement in hand by the end of the government's term."

Netanyahu, the leading Likud "rebel", accused Sharon of jeopardizing Israel's security with the unilateral Gaza pullout, but has said he would cede some land to the Palestinians if they stamped out militancy.

"I hope once the dust settles in Israel that this time we will have a partner for the end-game, for real peace," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

Palestinians, who are gearing up for parliamentary elections next month, received news of an increase in popularity for Fatah, the ruling faction of President Mahmoud Abbas in a poll published on Sunday.

The findings by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research gave Fatah a 3 percentage point increase to 50 per cent, up from September's poll of 47 per cent. Militant group Hamas, standing for the first time, rose from 30 to 32 per cent.

- REUTERS