Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon confronted Likud party rebels with a pledge to put the good of Israel first today as he battled to avoid an embarrassing defeat over his Gaza pullout plan.
He addressed a raucous Likud convention before voting began on a motion sponsored by party rightists to bar Sharon from bringing the centre-left Labour Party into government to prop up his plan for "disengaging" from conflict with Palestinians.
"There are times in the life of a nation when it must make difficult decisions. The state of Israel has reached that moment," Sharon said of his plan to evacuate all Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip and a few from the West Bank.
"This is the voice of someone who knows how to lead a country above any interest, whether partisan or personal," said Mr Sharon.
Mr Sharon had to raise his voice to be heard over a crowd of hardline hecklers chanting, "Yes to Likud, no to Labour!"
Members of Likud's 3,000-strong Central Committee also planned to vote on a separate motion by Sharon for permission to negotiate with unnamed parties on expanding his coalition.
Voting was due to end at around 10 p.m. (local time).
Defeat to the rebels could hamper Sharon's efforts to forge a broad coalition capable of removing settlers and the soldiers deployed to protect them from a 4-year-old Palestinian revolt.
Aides said Mr Sharon would press on with his dialogue with Labour and "disengagement" preparations however the Likud vote panned out. But defying the verdict of the traditionally pro-settler party could trigger early elections.
The rebels oppose giving up land captured in the 1967 Middle East war and say ceding Gaza would "reward Palestinian terror".
But Mr Sharon has backtracked from decades of championing settlement expansion amid opinion polls which show that most Israelis see Gaza as a costly liability.