Israel's Sharon survives no-confidence vote

10.20am

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon survived a no-confidence vote over his Gaza pullout plan in Israel's parliament on Monday, boosted by reports he would avoid charges in a bribery scandal.

Hours after Sharon comfortably won the vote, Israeli forces killed three Palestinian militants, including a local leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, in a missile attack on their car in the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian sources said.

The Israeli army confirmed it had attacked the car. Khalil Marshoud and another member of his group were killed when a missile ripped through the roof of their car, blasting a crater into the road, Palestinian security officials said.

Sharon passed his first parliamentary test since his cabinet on June 6 approved his plan in principle to evacuate Jewish settlers from Gaza, a decision that triggered far-right defections that stripped his ruling coalition of its majority.

In a sign Sharon wants to couple a Gaza withdrawal with a tighter grip on West Bank settlement blocs, Israel began issuing orders to confiscate large tracts of Palestinian land for a controversial new segment of a giant barrier it is building.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie condemned the seizures for the barrier, which Palestinians call a land grab but Israel says is needed to keep out suicide bombers.

The army said it was easing some restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement in the West Bank -- something the United States, Israel's main ally, has long demanded.

Sharon, whose coalition now controls just 59 seats in the 120-member legislature, kept his government afloat on Monday helped by a safety net from the opposition Labour Party, a supporter of withdrawals from occupied territory.

He easily won all three no-confidence motions presented in parliament, including one by a far-right party against his plan to "disengage" from the Palestinians, which drew only 22 votes in favour in the 120-seat parliament.

But about 10 members of Sharon's Likud party, including cabinet minister Uzi Landau, angered Sharon by staying away.

The prime minister was buoyed by reports that Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz had decided not to charge him in a corruption scandal.

Dubbed "the Greek island affair" by Israeli media, it concerned payments made by an Israeli land developer to Sharon's son Gilad, hired as an adviser on a never-completed project to build a Greek resort.

Indictment would probably have forced Sharon from office and derailed his US-backed Gaza plan.

Israeli media said Mazuz was about to close the case for lack of evidence but would admonish Sharon for his conduct. The prime minister denies any wrongdoing. Mazuz was expected to make his decision public on Wednesday or Thursday.

Removal of the indictment threat would give Sharon a boost in his plan to scrap all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four of the 120 in the West Bank by the end of 2005.

"Uncertainty on his future will be gone," a Sharon confidant said. "He will use this to make progress on leaving Gaza."

It could make it easier for centre-left Labour to join Sharon's coalition after it lost its majority. Labour has been reluctant to join while the scandal lingers on.

Dropping the charges could strengthen Sharon's hand in his own rightist Likud party, where he had to placate ministers by agreeing to hold off on evacuations until March 2005.

Polls show most Israelis are willing to part with Gaza's hard-to-defend settlements where 7,500 Jews live.

It would be Israel's first removal of settlements built in the West Bank and Gaza, seized in the 1967 Middle East war.

Sharon has left no doubt he wants to keep West Bank land where settlement blocs like Ariel have been built -- a move that Palestinians say would deprive them of a viable state.

Political sources said orders had been issued to expropriate land where the barrier will loop around Ariel.

- REUTERS