JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel's parliament approved the first reading of a compensation bill for Jewish settlers who will be forced to leave their homes in the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank.
Deputies voted 64-44 in favour of the project, which also envisages a strengthening of Israeli control over larger West Bank settlement blocs.
There were nine abstentions.
The bill lays out compensation packages for over 8,000 settlers from the 21 settlements in Gaza and four others in the West Bank that the government has vowed to dismantle.
Its total budget of 900 million dollars also covers the cost of evacuating all troops who have occupied the Gaza Strip for 37 years.
Last Tuesday, the parliament, or Knesset, comfortably approved Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's controversial plan to pull out of Gaza, despite hefty opposition from within his own right-wing Likud party.
Earlier Wednesday, Sharon and Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to postpone a crucial parliamentary vote on the first reading of Israel's 2005 state budget, public television reported.
The decision came as it became increasingly clear that Sharon's ruling right-wing coalition was running the risk of being defeated in a first reading of the bill.
Losing the crucial budget vote could effectively bring down the government. It was not immediately clear when the vote would be rescheduled, the television said.
Sharon was stripped of his parliamentary majority in June when traditional supporters were either sacked or walked out of his coalition in protest at his Gaza pullout plan.
11/03/2004 - 16:48 GMT - AFP