JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday secured support for a vote on the 2005 budget ahead of a showdown on the bill next week, as Palestinian forces took control of a second West Bank city.
The security handover in the northern district of Tulkarem was completed when the Israeli army dismantled a key checkpoint to the east of the city that had been closed for nearly four years.
Palestinian forces began to fan out across the area late Monday after both sides agreed on the specifics of the transfer.
But an AFP correspondent said Israeli troops had also erected a new checkpoint, stopping cars and checking identity cards some 500 metres (yards) east on the main road to Nablus.
The handover came less than a week after Palestinian forces took over limited control in Jericho.
Against the backdrop of the transfers, a senior Israeli intelligence official praised Palestinian security efforts for thwarting as many militant attacks as their Israeli counterparts.
Over the past few weeks, Palestinian security forces "have prevented no fewer attacks than the Israeli security services," the officer told the foreign affairs and defence committee, a source told AFP.
Israel's state budget, meanwhile, was expected to pass a key hurdle on Tuesday with a positive vote by MPs on the parliamentary finance committee.
Its safe passage was ensured after Sharon reached an uneasy compromise with rebel MPs from his right-wing Likud party who had threatened to scupper the bill at the committee ballot.
In exchange for a 'yes' vote from the rebels who oppose his Gaza withdrawal plan, Likud deputies on the parliamentary law committee will later this week vote in favour of a national referendum bill on the controversial evacuation.
The 2005 state budget needs to pass in the finance committee before being put to its second and third readings on March 29.
It must pass both readings by March 31 or the government will fall, forcing early elections and jeopardising the planned Gaza evacuation.
The parliamentary law committee is to vote on the referendum bill on Wednesday, again raising the contentious issue of a national plebiscite.
"The 'deal' was simple: let us promote the referendum bill and we'll let you promote the budget bill," the Yediot Aharonot daily said.
Sharon, who has been slammed by many of his traditional supporters over his plan to withdraw Israeli soldiers and settlers from Gaza by the end of August, is vehemently opposed to the idea of a referendum which could delay the evacuation.
"A referendum ... is the last remaining obstacle on the way to disengagement," Yediot said, referring to Sharon's plan to uproot all 8,000 Jewish settlers living in Gaza as well as in four settlements in the northern West Bank.
However, it is not certain that the bill will pass due to the opposition of the ultra-Orthodox parties which have traditionally opposed such plebiscites.
Looking ahead to next week's final budget showdown, Yediot Aharonot predicted it would pass by a narrow majority of 58 to 56 with six abstentions.
On the other hand, the paper predicted that the question of a referendum would be defeated by 80 votes to 40 if the bill is put to the plenum on March 28.
On Tuesday evening, 80 people were arrested after Jewish settlers opposed to the pullout blocked two important highways -- one along the Mediterranean coast, linking Netanya with Tel Aviv, and the other between the Dead Sea and Jerusalem, a police officer said.
The demonstrators burned tires Settlers burned tires on the Netanya-Tel Aviv road and blocked traffic for more than 20 minutes, Major Yehua Edri, in charge of traffic, told private television.
A group calling itself Revava said it would carry out surprise blockades on other roads in the future.
In other developments, the Greek Orthodox Church was flung into a fresh crisis as Palestinian MPs adopted a resolution calling for Arab Orthodox Christians to secede from the Greek patriarchy following its alleged sale of Jerusalem land to Jewish investors.
Greek Patriarch Irineos I denied any involvement in the alleged land sale in Jerusalem's Old City and Greek experts have arrived to investigate the scandal.
Purchasing property in the Old City, which is in occupied and annexed east Jerusalem, is fraught with political tensions as Jewish groups often try to obtain properties in Palestinian areas in a major settlement drive.

03/22/2005 20:20 GMT