Sharon sees off symbolic setbacks

Mr Sharon's government faces attack on several fronts

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has held on to power despite losing two votes of no-confidence in parliament.

Two motions attacking his social policy were passed but without the majority needed to unseat the government.

The Sharon government lost its majority in June but has survived largely thanks to the Labour opposition's support for his plan to uproot settlements in Gaza.

His coalition faces a fresh test over the Shinui party's opposition to the new budget, to be presented this week.

Shinui leader Tommy Lapid has threatened to withdraw from the coalition unless the budget's promise of a 420m shekel ($98m) grant to two Orthodox religious parties is shelved.

Mr Sharon offered the parties the money in order to secure their backing for the budget.

The Labour party has also said it will vote against the budget because of its proposed cuts to welfare spending.

Failure to get the budget approved by 31 March will lead to new elections.

Abstentions

None of the motions attacking Mr Sharon managed to gather the 61 votes necessary to topple the government.

The motions broadly attacked the government for worsening poverty in Israel and for the free-market economic policies of Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

However, several left-wing parties prevented a government collapse by abstaining from the vote because of their support for Mr Sharon's Gaza withdrawal plan.

Earlier, the left-wing Yahad party said it would abstain from voting against Mr Sharon on Monday because it supported his efforts to withdraw soldiers and settlers from Gaza.

'Cutting off the branch'

Mr Sharon has threatened to sack any members of his government who try to block the budget.

Doing so will leave him with the support of 40 legislators in the 120-member parliament.

If the budget is not ratified by its third reading in parliament next March, Mr Sharon will have to announce fresh elections.

Mr Lapid told Israel's Army Radio: "Sharon is cutting off the branch his government is sitting on, and if he does this then there will be elections in the very near future."

Sources quoted by the Associated Press agency say Mr Sharon is hoping to shore up support in the long run by bringing the Labour party and the ultra-Orthodox Shas party into a new coalition.

Political analyst Yossi Verter wrote in the Haaretz newspaper that Mr Sharon's government is in "its final death throes".

"Even if Sharon manoeuvres out of this crisis, the next few months will not be smooth sailing," he said.