Two ministers quit Sharon's team

Ariel Sharon is battling to hold his coalition together

Two right-wing members of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet have said they are resigning, but their party will stay in government for now.

Housing Minister Effi Eitam and junior minister Yitzhak Levy belong to the pro-settler National Religious Party.

NRP members were angered by the cabinet's approval of Mr Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza by the end of 2005, uprooting 7,500 Jewish settlers.

Mr Sharon would lose his majority in parliament if NRP did decide to leave.

On Sunday, cabinet voted 14 to seven to back a revised version of Mr Sharon's disengagement plan for a phased pull-out - but it postponed a vote on implementation until next year.

GAZA PULL-OUT PLAN Pull-out from all 21 settlements in Gaza and 4 in West Bank Preparation period due to end by March 2005 Four-stage evacuation to be completed by end of 2005 Each stage requires cabinet vote

If the NRP decides to quit the coalition Mr Sharon could be left with only 55 seats in the Knesset, forcing him to seek a new coalition partner or carry on at the head of a minority government.

Under the amended Gaza plan, fresh votes will be needed at each stage before settlements are removed, and the process will not begin until March 2005.

Mr Sharon passed a first hurdle comfortably on Monday when he won two no-confidence votes in the 120-seat parliament on Monday.

The BBC's Barbara Plett in Jerusalem says the revised plan has deferred a political crisis without resolving it.

Ministers were bitterly divided over the plan.

Mr Sharon sacked two pro-settler opponents of it - Tourism Minister Benny Elon and Transport Minister Avigdor Lieberman of the National Union party - on Friday.

Opponents of the plan in Mr Sharon's Likud party have threatened to withhold their support for him in key votes, such as no-confidence motions, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reports.

Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who leads the opposition Labour Party, told the BBC his party would not join the ruling coalition - but at the same time he did not want the Sharon government to fall.