Sharon diverts from roadmap's path to peace

As Ariel Sharon presented his new coalition government to the Knesset, Israel's parliament, for approval yesterday, he did not make a single mention of the "roadmap", the internationally drawn-up peace plan based on George Bush's call for a Palestinian state that is supposed to be the basis of the peace process.

Nor was it mentioned in the government's official programme, which instead said that Israel's government will not agree to a peace deal which includes a Palestinian state without a new government debate on whether to accept the idea at all.

Mr Sharon said to the Knesset yesterday, as he has said many times before, that he is prepared to make "painful concessions" for peace. He has repeatedly said he will work towards the "two-state solution" called for by President Bush - although the Palestinian state Mr Sharon describes is a seriously limited one, with no control over its own borders or foreign policy, that is unlikely to satisfy Palestinian demands.

There are fears that Mr Sharon's new coalition, the most hardline in Israel for some time, will not move the peace process forward. It includes two parties which are both ideologically opposed to any sort of Palestinian state in the Occupied Territories, and which both sent Mr Sharon letters putting it on record that they will continue to oppose a Palestinian state before joining the government.

Mr Sharon reiterated yesterday that he is not prepared to move the peace process forward until violence by Palestinian militants ends. His outgoing government has already called for more than 100 changes to the "roadmap", a peace plan drawn up by the Middle East "Quartet" - the US, EU, Russia and the UN - which includes a timetable for the establishment of a Palestinian state. Mr Sharon's people have hinted the Prime Minister would prefer to replace it with a new peace plan agreed solely with the US.

The government's official programme held out little hope of progress on the subject of Jewish settlements inside the Occupied Territories, considered one of the greatest obstacles to a peace deal. The US has called for Israel to stop building any more of the settlements, which are built in contravention of international law on occupied land, and which the Palestinians say are intended to take over the land where they want to make their state.

Mr Sharon's new coalition charter says no new settlements will be established. But it also says the government considers the settlements "an important social and national project" and will "respond to the needs of development" in existing settlements. New settlement outposts are often passed off as new neighbourhoods of existing settlements.

Mr Sharon's other priority is to rescue the Israeli economy, which is in crisis after more than two years of the Intifada. Binyamin Netanyahu, the former Prime Minister and Mr Sharon's chief rival in his Likud Party, yesterday swallowed his pride and accepted the job of Finance Minister, which he had at first refused out of hand as a demotion from the Foreign Ministry.

Replying to Mr Sharon's speech, the opposition Labour leader, Amram Mitzna, said Mr Sharon would not be able to drag Israel out of economic crisis or achieve a diplomatic breakthrough in the peace process.