Sharon fashions 7-party alliance

JERUSALEM - Israel's Prime Minister-elect, Ariel Sharon, yesterday formed a unity Government, one month after sweeping to victory at the polls on a pledge to restore security in the face of a Palestinian revolt.

Sharon has sewn together an alliance of seven parties controlling at least 73 seats in the 120-member Knesset, mixing the centre-left Labour Party with ultra-nationalist blocs.

"The way I see it, the unity of the people is more important than anything else," he said.

Labour's elder statesman, Shimon Peres, will be Foreign Minister in a Government which, he said, would adhere to a principle of land-for-peace in any negotiations with the Palestinians.

Israeli left-wingers have called into question the peacemaking ability of a coalition uniting advocates of a state for Palestinians with politicians who want to expel them from the West Bank and Gaza.

Sharon spent the eve of his premiership handing out cabinet posts to Likud members, naming one of its leading lights, Silvan Shalom, as Finance Minister.

Financial analysts expect the 42-year-old Shalom to seek a looser monetary policy as Israel struggles with an economic slowdown.

After trouncing Labour's Ehud Barak at the polls, Sharon, a 73-year-old former Army general, announced he intended to set up a broad national unity Government to tackle the Palestinian revolt, which has raged since September, and to revive peace talks.

"We still have a long way to go to restore security to our homes," Sharon said yesterday.

"But it is important to remember that Israel is the only place in the world in which Jews have the right and the ability to defend themselves by themselves."

Sharon's main task as Prime Minister will be dealing with the Palestinian uprising, in which at least 342 Palestinians, 65 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed since it erupted in late September after peace negotiations stalled.

Sharon, reviled by Arabs for his role in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon and subsequent massacre of Palestinian refugees, has kept his remarks low-key in recent days, vowing to restore Israelis' security but also to work for peace.

Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg, of the Labour Party, said Israelis were ready to give the new cabinet a chance.

- REUTERS

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