JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Sunday veteran statesman Shimon Peres would play an important role in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking if the prime minister's new Kadima party won Israel's March election.

"I am happy and proud that Shimon Peres has decided to join us, in Kadima," Sharon told a news conference with Peres at his side. "I asked Shimon Peres to pick any job he wants. Shimon can fulfil any post, I believe with great success," he said.

Peres, 82, left the Labour Party, which voted him out as its leader last month, and threw his support behind Sharon on Wednesday, saying he was confident the prime minister would seek peace with the Palestinians.

"Regardless of the job Shimon picks, it is crystal clear he will be a full and central partner in the diplomatic process," Sharon said, referring to peacemaking with the Palestinians.

Sharon said he had yet to discuss with Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, exactly what his job would be under a Kadima-led government after the March 28 election.

At the news conference, Peres said he was forging a "grand partnership" with Sharon that would pursue Middle East peace and regional economic opportunities.

"I see an opportunity that we must not miss," Peres said. "I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself if I hadn't, because of political party considerations or inconvenience, lent a hand to the move ... Sharon is leading."

As vice-premier in Israel's governing coalition, Peres helped Sharon press ahead with a pullout of troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip last September despite opposition from the prime minister's right-wing Likud party.

Sharon quit the Likud last month and created Kadima, saying he wanted to be free of far-right constraints in pursuing peace.

At the news conference, Sharon reaffirmed his support for a US-backed peace "roadmap" that charts reciprocal steps towards creation of a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.

But the Israeli leader has said there could be no progress in peacemaking until the Palestinian Authority disarmed militants as stipulated by the roadmap, which also calls for a freeze in Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

"I hope the Palestinian Authority will understand this and not miss the opportunity to enter into a diplomatic process," said Sharon, whose vow to retain major settlement blocs has raised Palestinian concern about the possibility of creating a viable state.

Source: China Daily