Israeli coalition partner set to quit over Gaza pullout

Welfare Minister Zeev Orlev has scheduled a lunchtime press conference at which he was widely expected to confirm that his National Religious Party was bolting the coalition.

The NRP, one of three parties still in government, had set Sharon a two-week deadline to either call new elections or a referendum on his so-called disengagement plan after it won parliamentary approval a fortnight ago.

Sharon's camp has refused to bend to the pressure however, insisting that there is no time for a plebiscite and warning that the calls for a referendum are merely a smokescreen used by opponents to wreck the whole project.