Israeli cabinet approved Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's revised disengagement plan by a 14 to 7 majority on Sunday evening.

Sharon said Sunday evening that the cabinet's approval of the plan shows that Israel is "taking its future in its own hands."

"The government decided today that by the end of 2005 Israel will leave (all 21 Jewish settlements in) Gaza and four settlements (in the West Bank)," he said shortly after the vote.

"The state of Israel made a decisive step for its future," Sharon added.

Nine Likud members and five ministers from Shinui voted for the plan while five other Likud members and two ministers from National Religious Party (NRP) voted against it.

The vote was halted earlier Sunday when Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Education Minister Limor Livnat demanded that the letters of understanding exchanged between Sharon and US President George W. Bush should not be included in the plan as Sharon asked.

The demand was made because the letters that Sharon and Bush exchanged clearly state that settlements would ultimately be evacuated.

Sharon's bureau chief Dov Weisglass said later that the three ministers reached a compromise that the letters will not be included as an appendix but as a reference within the plan. The three then voted for the plan, adding the number of people supporting the plan to 14.

After the vote, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would immediately issue orders to the Israel Lands Authority to freeze any new requests for building permits in the Gaza Strip.

NRP leader Effi Eitam called on his party to leave the coalition after the vote, even as his NRP Minister Ze'vulun Orlev called on the party to remain in the government.

Upon leaving the cabinet following Sunday night's vote, Eitam said, "This is one of the darkest moments in Israel's history."

But Orlev said the fact that the text approved by the government does not call for the evacuation of settlements allows for the NRP to stay in the government.

Meanwhile, opposition Labor party leader Shimon Peres said he did not think there should be any talks now on a national unity government, adding that neither the Likud nor the Labor had put such a proposal on the table.

As for the disengagement plan, he said it is "not clear when or if" the evacuation of settlements from Gaza would begin.

"Maybe the Likud has time, and maybe unity in the Likud is of the utmost importance, but Israel does not have time," Peres said.

According to the revised plan, settlements will not be removed until March 2005, when Sharon will have to hold another vote at the cabinet to approve the move. In the nine months until then, the infrastructure for the settlement removal will be prepared.

Source: Xinhua