http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&s... <snip>
"Ariel Sharon's deputy said the Israeli prime minister would push through his Gaza pullout plan virtually unchanged, even as work was set to begin on Thursday on a new fence deep in the territory to secure a settler road.
Indicating the barrier was a temporary measure until Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, Vice Premier Ehud Olmert predicted in a newspaper interview that Sharon would win cabinet approval within weeks despite his party's rejection of the plan.
"We will implement the 'disengagement plan',' Olmert told the Jerusalem Post. "The prime minister must now create a mechanism that will allow him to pass this resolution, and that he will do."
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"But Sharon has said his defeat in his own party did not mean the initiative was being shelved. Aides said the prime minister and his aides were discussing how to refloat it.
Olmert dismissed media reports that Sharon would slim down the pullout plan, limiting it to a handful of isolated settlements in Gaza. He said a scaled-back pullout was impractical and would not meet with approval from Washington, Israel's closest ally."