59.5 percent Likud voters reject Sharon disengagement plan

59.5 percent Likud Party voters rejected Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza withdrawal plan, also known as "the disengagement plan," according to final results of the Likud party referendum released early on Monday. Meanwhile, 39.7 percent voters supported the plan, and the restof the votes were ruled invalid.

Some 96,700 Likud members voted in Sunday's referendum, with turnout around a low 40 percent.

Under the US-backed Sharon plan, Israel would evacuate 17 of the 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and take down four small West Bank settlements and complete construction of a West Bank separation barrier by the end of 2005.

Currently some 8,000 Jewish settlers live in the Gaza Strip among 1.5 million Palestinians.

A defiant Sharon vowed Sunday night in a statement that he would not resign after the Likud referendum snubbed his plan.

"I know that much of the Israeli public supports my plan. I know that they feel, as I do, disappointment with the results of the referendum. We have difficult days before us where difficult decisions need to be made," he said.

But Sharon said he would consult the Likud ministers, the parliament faction and his coalition partners to decide what stepsto take.

In the meantime, the US White House was quick to reiterate its support for the plan.

It said on Sunday that President George W. Bush still supported the plan even after it was rejected by Sharon's Likud Party.

"We have been informed of the results of the Likud voting. Our own view has not changed: The president welcomed Prime Minister Sharon's plan to withdraw settlements from Gaza and a part of the West Bank as a courageous and important step toward peace," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in a statement.

"We will be in consultation with the prime minister and the government of Israel about how to move forward," McClellan said.

Bush announced his endorsement of the disengagement plan at a joint press conference with Sharon on April 14 when the Israeli prime minister visited the White House.

Source: Xinhua