MIDDLE EAST: Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon will head to Washington next week to hold talks with US officials as he desperately tries to rebound from a humiliating defeat on Sunday in his own ruling Likud party on his plan to withdraw from Gaza, his aides confirmed yesterday.
President Bush, who enthusiastically backed Mr Sharon's initiative, as well as European leaders, have called on the prime minister to find a way to forge ahead with his disengagement plan, which calls for the evacuation of all 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank, despite it being rejected by his party.
But Mr Sharon, who will be in Washington to address the influential pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC, will be hard-pressed to find a new version of his plan that satisfies both hardliners in his party who successfully campaigned against him, and the US administration.
Mr Bush, with whom Mr Sharon will probably meet, paid a price in the Arab world for his support of the Israeli leader and will not be enthusiastic about backing a watered-down version of the prime minister's original plan.
Defence Minister Mr Shaul Mofaz, who championed the Gaza pullout plan, said yesterday: "In the near future we will sit and think and find the way to prepare a different plan that is initiated by the state of Israel . . . for the state of Israel." He did not provide any specifics.
Mr Sharon might also meet with the Democratic challenger in the November presidential elections in the US, Mr John Kerry.
Israeli troops yesterday shot dead a leading Hamas militant near the West Bank city of Nablus, as well as two militants in Gaza.
A co-founder of Hamas, meanwhile, Mr Mohammed Taha (68), who was arrested 14 months ago by troops in the Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, was released yesterday.
Israeli troops killed a Palestinian police captain and wounded 15 people in clashes with gunmen and stone-throwers elsewhere in Gaza, and razed 10 houses in Khan Younis.
Israeli warplanes, meanwhile, hit Hizbullah positions in Lebanon, after the group fired shells at Israeli planes in Lebanese airspace.
The shells landed in Israel. The Israeli military blamed Hizbullah, saying it continued to target towns inside Israel "under the guise of anti-aircraft fire".