Israel seeks coalition government

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asked the dovish Labor Party on Friday to join his ruling coalition, a move that greatly bolsters his chances of carrying out a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip next year.

Meanwhile, violence erupted in the volatile coastal area. Israeli soldiers killed a 7-year-old Palestinian girl when they fired at militants in the Khan Younis refugee camp. The incident occurred after a mortar barrage on the Neve Dekalim settlement wounded four Israelis, one of them a child, the army and Palestinian security officials said.

Sharon invited Labor to join the government a day after he won approval from his Likud Party to do so, an important victory. Sharon could be forced to call an early election if he fails to broaden his government.

An early election could delay - if not derail - Sharon's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements.

Bringing Labor into the Likud-led government, along with an upcoming Palestinian presidential election, could also help restart long-stalled peace talks.

Labor leader Shimon Peres confirmed Sharon called him Friday to open coalition talks. Peres praised the Likud decision and said his party would meet Saturday to authorize the negotiations.

"I hope we should be able to move ahead in the direction of peace," he said. "It's not simple. It's not easy, but it is promising and the right step."

Sharon has also invited two religious parties to open coalition negotiations, a senior government official said.

Peres, 81, and Sharon, 76, have forged alliances in the past. Peres served as Sharon's foreign minister from 2001 to 2002 in a Likud-Labor government. Since then, Sharon and Peres have repeatedly expressed a desire to join forces, but have been prevented from doing so, mostly by their own supporters.

Despite continued misgivings over the Gaza plan, Likud's Central Committee voted 62 to 38 percent in favor of forming a coalition with Labor over the riskier alternative of heading to an early election, which could cost Likud seats.

For decades, Sharon was the leading proponent of building settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. He changed his policy in the past year, saying Gaza's 8,200 Jewish settlers could not continue living among more than 1-million Palestinians.

A Likud-Labor government would come just before Sharon's Cabinet and Parliament are to approve parts of the pullout, scheduled to begin in July 2005.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's death on Nov. 11 also helped revitalize peace prospects because both Israel and the United States refused to talk to him, saying he backed terror.

Sharon has indicated he might be willing to coordinate his Gaza pullout with a newly elected Palestinian leadership and possibly pursue peace talks as well.

Still, Israel is waiting to see who wins the Jan. 9 Palestinian presidential election. Israel and the United States have given tacit support to the interim Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas.

Opinion polls show Abbas, the candidate of the ruling Fatah party, running neck-and-neck with imprisoned Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti.

A team of Fatah members traveled Friday to meet Barghouti, a party member who is running as an independent, to persuade him to pull out of the race. Fatah members fear his candidacy could divide the ruling party.

Barghouti is serving five life terms in an Israeli prison for his role in deadly attacks on Israelis.

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