JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appeared to have seen off pressure for a referendum on his controversial Gaza pullout plan as his chances of winning parliamentary approval for the project improved.
But Labour party leader Shimon Peres voiced fears that Jewish extremists fiercely opposed to the plan to pull all troops and Jewish settlers out of the Gaza Strip could try to assassinate the premier.
Sharon had faced widespread calls from MPs within his own party and right-wing ministers to hold a nationwide ballot on his so-called disengagement plan, culiminating in a stormy meeting with Likud deputies on Monday.
However army radio reported Tuesday that Likud MPs, having failed to force a U-turn from the prime minister, were now suspending their campaign.
Transport Minister Meir Sheetrit said that a referendum would have been an act of political suicide for Likud and was clearly designed to derail the whole project.
"If the Likud wants to commit suicide, this is precisely how to do it," he said. "Today anybody who says: 'let's hold a referendum,' is saying 'let's delay the disengagement for many months,' and we won't know if there will be an end to it."
Sharon will present the plan for a vote in parliament next Monday where his chances of victory are looking ever stronger, even though he lacks a majority.
The prime minister received assurances from opposition leader Peres at talks late Monday that his Labour party's 21 MPs would back the government on October 25.
Former Labour premier Ehud Barak said the party should provide Sharon with "a net made of steel to implement disengagement".
The six members of the left-wing Yahad faction are also set to vote with the government. "We must prevent the extreme-right from torpedoing the disengagement," Yahad MP Ran Cohen told public radio.
Health Minister Danny Naveh, a close Sharon ally, said the premier would sack any government dissenters. "The ministers and vice-ministers will be forced to vote for the plan in the chamber although Likud deputies will have a free vote."
Several members of Sharon's government, including cabinet minister Uzi Landau, have been leading the opposition to the plan which also envisages Israel tightening its grip over larger West Bank settlements.
Parliament officials said extra security measures were being imposed ahead of the vote, while prison authorities also revealed they had been asked to prepare for the detention of hundreds of settlers.
Sharon has accused extremists of trying to provoke a civil war, an accusation that has been thrown back in his face by his one-time supporters.
Peres voiced fears that the prime minister's life was in danger, saying the atmosphere of incitement was as bad as in the lead-up to the asssassination of Yitzhak Rabin.
"The incitement has me terrified, the harsh words that are being voiced again," the Labour leader was quoted as telling the Maariv daily. "I am afraid that someone will try to kill the prime minister."
Peres assumed the premiership after Rabin was shot dead by a right-wing Jewish extremist at a rally in Tel Aviv in November 1955.
In events on the ground Tuesday, two Palestinian militants were shot dead in northern Gaza after being spotted by Israeli troops trying to plant explosives.
On the diplomatic front, French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier urged the international community, especially the United States and Arab League, not to allow the Middle East conflict to fester without response.
Barnier also told Israel it had to understand that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, confined to virtual house arrest in the West Bank, remained key to peace hopes.
"History teaches us that we cannot choose our enemies and it is with them that we have to make peace," the foreign minister said at the end of a three-day visit to the Jewish state.