JERUSALEM, Oct 15 (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has invited leaders of the settler movement who are fiercely opposed to his Gaza pullout plan to a meeting on Sunday, according to his office.
"The meeting is being held on the intiative of Mr Sharon at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem," a spokesman told AFP Friday.
Representatives from the main settlers council Yesha are expected at the meeting with a man who used to be seen as their ultimate champion before he unveiled his so-called disengagement plan.
Under the terms of the project, all 8,000 settlers currently living in the Gaza Strip and four isolated Jewish enclaves in the northern West Bank, are due to be uprooted from their homes next year.
In turn, Sharon is hoping that such a unilateral measure will enable him to strengthen Israeli control over larger West Bank settlement blocs where the majority of settlers live.
Settlers and their supporters have held a several protests against the disengagement plan in recent weeks, although a series of demonstrations at 100 different venues on Thursday attracted only a fraction of the tens of thousands that organisers had hoped would attend.
Sharon is still looking to find a parliamentary majority for his plan when he presents it to MPs on October 25. He lost his majority in June when previous allies were either sacked or resigned in protest at what settlers have described as the "forcible transfer of Jews."