Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has no plans to meet right-wing Likud opposition party leader Ariel Sharon Saturday for further discussions on forming an emergency government, his office said.
"There will not be a meeting this evening, although one could take place in the next few days," a spokeswoman for Barak, Merav Parsi-Zaddok told AFP.
A spokeswoman for Communications Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, who is negotiating with Likud officials to try to forge a political alliance, had said on Friday that the two may meet Saturday.
Barak is trying to lure Likud into the government and stave off the threat of early elections after declaring a time-out in the peace process with the Palestinians because of the month-long wave of deadly clashes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Ben Eliezer's spokeswoman Tami Shenkman said Friday that the minister and Likud representative Meir Sheetrit had reached an agreement on four out of six points on conditions for the creation of a national unity government.
But the inclusion in government of Sharon, the former defense minister and foreign minister reviled by the Palestinians for his visit to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound that triggered the explosion of violence, would likely signal a complete halt to the peace process – JERUSALEM (AFP)
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