Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has rejected a call from Likud Party rival Mr Benjamin Netanyahu to put his Gaza withdrawal plan to a referendum and vowed to carry it out on schedule.
Mr Netanyahu, Israel's finance minister, yesterday said a vote was needed to defuse tensions with ultra-rightists determined to resist a withdrawal.
Mr Sharon has denounced his hardline opponents as threatening to lead Israel into civil war.
Responding to Mr Netanyahu's surprise challenge, Mr Sharon told Israeli dailies today a nationwide referendum "is not on the agenda" because such a move would delay his plan to remove 21 Gaza settlements and four West Bank enclaves by the end of 2005.
"The disengagement plan will be carried out according to schedule," Mr Sharon told the Haaretznewspaper.
He was expected to win crucial support today from his security cabinet for principles of compensation for settlers facing evacuation under his US-backed blueprint for "disengaging" from four years of conflict with the Palestinians.
A draft of legislation leaked to Israeli media yesterday said each settler family would receive between $200,000 and $500,000.
Mr Sharon's plan has done little to halt the bloodshed as many Palestinians see it as a ruse to trade impoverished Gaza for large swathes of the West Bank, where most of Israel's 240,000 settlers live.
Mr Netanyahu's proposal for a referendum, coming right after an angry rally by 70,000 opponents of the Gaza plan, was widely seen as an attempt to slow implementation of any withdrawal.
Opinion polls show that a majority of Israelis favour withdrawing from Gaza's hard-to-defend settlements.
Mr Sharon is determined to stick to his timetable for bringing the settler compensation law to his full cabinet in coming weeks and seek parliament's preliminary approval by November 3rd, political sources said.