Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres squabbled for the first time on unity government talks during a meeting on Sunday morning, the Ha'aretz daily reported.

During the meeting, Sharon rejected a demand by Peres that Labor negotiators in upcoming unity talks be empowered to demand changes in the present government's basic policy guidelines.

Sharon said he is opposed to any demand by Labor that it be able to set preconditions for coalition talks.

As a result of the dispute, it remains unclear if the formal opening of Likud-Labor unity government negotiations will begin as scheduled on Sunday evening.

Referring to the planned talks, Sharon told the cabinet after the meeting that there may be no alternative but to change ministers' roles.

"It is possible that there will be changes in the roles of cabinet ministers," he said.

Although Sharon turned down the demand, he told Peres that Labor could raise any issues that it wished in the course of the negotiations.

Sharon decided to summon Peres following a difficult conversation last Thursday with Labor whip Dalia Itzik, who protested his inviting ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and Shas for "simultaneous negotiations" alongside talks with the Labor party.

A senior Labor official said Saturday that negotiations will begin Sunday evening "if no blowout occurs" this morning, adding that "Likud must understand that we're not under its thumb. Without Labor, it cannot expand the current government and it's doubtful whether it will have a majority to push through the disengagement plan."

Labor officials were furious that Likud failed to acknowledge Labor's seniority over the ultra-Orthodox parties (Shas and UTJ), with which Likud intends to hold separate coalition talks.

Likud sources rejected these claims. "We give Labor all due respect. Witness the fact that it is the first faction invited to negotiate and only later will UTJ and Shas be invited," they countered.

The Likud negotiating team includes attorney Yoram Rabed, who is the Sharon family's legal adviser, former justice minister Yaakov Neeman, Sharon's strategic adviser Eyal Arad, and Likud legal adviser Eitan Haberman.

The team has received explicit negotiating instructions from Sharon, who made clear that the object is to broaden the coalition to implement the disengagement plan, but there is no intention of acceding to Labor's demand for revising the government's basic guidelines or incorporating substantial modifications, a Ha'aretz daily report said.

"We have a government and it works. There is no urgency to complete negotiations tomorrow morning," Sharon aides said Saturday.

Peres has not made the final decision on the makeup of the Labor's negotiating team.

Sharon made the overtures to form a coalition government in a bid to push through his unilateral disengagement plan, envisaging the pullout of Israeli forces and settlers from the Gaza Strip and West Bank captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Source: Xinhua