Israel's Labor party was set later on Sunday to announce the withdrawal from the coalition government as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon weighed quitting Likud to form a centrist party.

Labor's central committee was meeting in Tel Aviv to approve the formal decision on leaving the coalition.

"This is our last cabinet meeting," Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz, a Labor member, told reporters at the prime minister's office.

Labor's eight ministers and three deputy ministers have already signed their resignation letters which are due to be submitted Monday, and will come into effect in 48 hours.

Likud and Labor negotiating teams Sunday seemed to give the nod to early parliamentary elections on March 28, 2006, about eight months before the official end of the 16th Knesset (parliament), Israel Radio reported.

The next general elections were set to take place in November 2006, but following a pledge by newly-elected Labor Chairman Peretz to pull his party out of the coalition, a spring ballot seems likely.

Peretz said last week that he and Sharon had decided on a date between late February and the end of March.

With parliament due to be dissolved later this week, most senior Likud figures, including ministers, reportedly believed that Sharon is planning to leave and split the party.

Sharon has told Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres that he expects to work with him in the future.

"Shimon, this is the beginning of our joint work," Sharon told the 82-year-old Peres during Sunday's cabinet meeting.

"I won't let you...turn away from completing the mission you are destined for. I will call on your assistance in the future," Sharon said.

Ministers said Sharon's statements signaled that he intends to include Peres should he form a new party ahead of the general elections.

Commenting on Sharon's possible departure from the Likud, one of Sharon's associates said, "Sharon is delaying his decision, because it is dramatic and fateful both for his own perspective and political perspective."

Analysts said the hawk-turned-pragmatist leader has reshaped Israel's political landscape whether or not he would run for the new elections.

"He is liable to set in motion a political migration on a scale that the Israeli political map hasn't witnessed since the State of Israel was founded," wrote Shimon Shiffer in the best-selling Yedioth Ahronoth daily.

Faced with the prospect of Sharon's departure, Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz joined a list of senior party members on Sunday who have expressed interest in running for the Likud leadership should Sharon decide to quit.

The list of potential candidates has grown longer in recent days, with Knesset member Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Knesset member Uzi Landau and Education Minister Limor Livnat all being touted as possible candidates.

"There is a real possibility that Sharon will leave. It's dramatic and unprecedented," Katz told public radio.

"I definitely believe I can unite the Likud and make it a worthy opponent of Labor and Sharon's party."

If general elections are held in March, Likud primaries will possibly be held in February, according to local media reports.

A poll published Friday showed that a new Sharon-led central party is likely to win 28 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, compared to only 18 for Likud.

Meanwhile, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin decided Saturday night to postpone until Wednesday a debate scheduled for Monday on four bills to dissolve the Knesset and go to early elections.

Rivlin decided to delay voting on preliminary readings of the bills because Shas and Meretz-Yahad parties refused to take back no-confidence motions they had submitted.

The government had agreed to debate the Knesset dispersal bills Monday on condition that six factions remove no-confidence motions. Rivlin broached the matter with the heads of all six factions, but only four agreed to cancel their motions.

In any event, early elections in March 2006 will mean dispersing the Knesset within about six weeks. As a result, the Knesset will not have time to pass numerous laws that are in various stages of legislation.

Source: Xinhua