Sharon Tests New Plan for Gaza

JERUSALEM, May 27 -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Thursday presented several cabinet ministers with a draft of his revised plan for Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip but failed to persuade key members of his party to back the proposal.

The new plan calls for a withdrawal from Gaza and a handful of Jewish settlements in the West Bank in four stages, but only the first stage would be presented for a cabinet vote on Sunday, according to accounts that first appeared in the Israeli news media and were confirmed Thursday night by a government official. Each of the following stages would be approved separately.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan had not been formally presented to the cabinet, said the first phase would involve evacuating three of the smallest settlements in Gaza: Netzarim, Morag and Rafah Yam. Only if the first phase proved successful, said the official, would Sharon go on to the later segments. The official gave no projected dates for the other phases.

The new plan was designed to meet objections from members of Sharon's Likud Party, who defeated his original proposal in a referendum earlier this month, with 60 percent voting no. But it still ran into immediate opposition from several cabinet members, including Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a former prime minister who is Sharon's main rival within Likud.

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