Sharon says pullout vote is fateful decision

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Sunday morning in his last-minute appeal that the pullout vote would determine the direction in which Israel is heading.

"This is a fateful decision, tough but the most important, which will determine whether Israel will move forward in all areas -- in security, in economy, in education, in industry, in our relations with the United States -- or move backward," Sharon said at the weekly cabinet meeting.

"Each person must think good and well about the future of his children and his own future, and vote for my plan."

The 193,190 registered Likud members will be eligible to vote at 443 polling stations across the country from 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) till10 p.m. (1900 GMT). Results are expected by midnight local time.

Disengagement opponents are worried there will be fraud at the polls. They said Likud officials have limited their ability to supervise the voting in several locations, including Jerusalem, by compelling them to stand a distance away from the voting station and barring them from walking around freely.

In response, pullout opponents blocked the entrance to a Jerusalem site in which several polling booths were located, refusing to allow voters to go in until the limitations on supervision were removed.

Sharon vowed over the weekend to continue pushing his disengagement plan forward even if he fails to gain the support of his own party in Sunday's referendum.