Labour seals deal to join Sharon govt

Palestinians lead children from their homes in Gaza City Friday after Israeli military aircraft fired rockets on two metal workshops in Gaza City. It was not yet known if there were any victims in the attack. PHOTO: AFP

The entry into the government of the left-wing Labour Party, led by Shimon Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, could also help restart stalled talks with the Palestinians after they vote on Jan. 9 for a successor to late President Yasser Arafat.

"They have reached an agreement. They will meet tomorrow (Saturday) to summarise it," said Sharon's spokesman Assaf Shariv, adding that the deal was likely to be signed on Sunday. Peres said last week that Labour should join the government "unconditionally" to speed up a plan to "disengage" from conflict with the Palestinians by evacuating all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank in 2005.

"Let's close (the deal) and go to a unity government," Channel 2 television reported him as telling Sharon on Friday. Labour officials were unavailable for comment, but party sources confirmed a deal had been reached.

The agreement, which was reached after a week of negotiations and still awaits approval by Labour's Central Committee, would give the party five ministerial portfolios -- none high-ranking -- and make Peres a deputy prime minister.

Sharon needs Labour to avoid an early election after his big coalition partner, the centrist Shinui party, bolted over a state budget dispute. Likud officials are still negotiating to bring in two Orthodox parties to secure a parliamentary majority.

Meanwhile, the eleventh Palestinian was killed yesterday in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on the second day of a large-scale Israeli incursion, Palestinian medical sources said.

The identity of the latest victim, torn apart by an Israeli tank shell, was not immediately known, medical sources said.

Nine others were killed Friday after tanks supported by helicopter gunships rolled into Khan Yunis in a raid the army said was aimed at clamping down on attacks by Palestinian militants on nearby Jewish settlements.