JERUSALEM, Aug 19 (AFP) - Israel's Labour opposition chief Shimon Peres called Thursday for early elections following a stinging rebuff delivered to the prime minister by his own Likud party over his Gaza strip pullout plan.
"We cannot accept the country's fate being in the hands of a few hundred people opposed to the will of the majority of the country which favours withdrawal from the Gaza Strip," Peres told journalists.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a stunning blow to his plan Wednesday when Likud voted against the main opposition Labour party joining a new coalition government.
The prime minister needs to bring Labour into a new broad-based coalition to give him a parliamentary majority for his so-called disengagement plan which will involve the withdrawal of all settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip next year.
The next Israeli general election is scheduled for November 2006.
But Peres urged an early poll, saying Labour would be committed to "implementing the separation plan launched by Mr Sharon and also to applying the roadmap."
The "roadmap" is the name given to an international peace plan aiming to create a Palestinian state by next year and obliging Israel to freeze all settlement activity in the occupied territories as well as tear down settlement outposts which have been put up without the Israeli government's authorisation.
The plan has made little progress since its launch last year,
Sharon pressed on Thursday with his plans to pull settlers out of the Gaza Strip despite the Likud rebuff.
He said before the late night result that he would not be bound by the outcome and many observers believe that despite threats to call early elections, he will push on with coalition talks with Labour.