AL QUDS, Sept 12: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accused right-wing opponents of his Gaza pullout plan of trying to foment a civil war as tens of thousands of settlers were to protest against the withdrawal on Sunday.

Sharon told ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting that declarations by extremists who are trying to block the evacuation of settlers and troops from the territory next year amounted to unacceptable incitement.

"We have been witnesses in the last few days to a very serious campaign of incitement," Sharon said. "I would say that some of these calls are actually directed towards (starting) a civil war."

A petition published by 200 leading right-wingers last week said the "Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were created to defend us against enemies not to go after Jews and expel them from their motherland," equating the pullout of troops and settlers slated to take place next year to a "crime against humanity."

Sharon however said it was unacceptable to drag the army, which will oversee the pullout being carried out by the police, into the debate. "I think that the recent threats on IDF officers and members of the security establishment are an unprecedented phenomenon, which will have grave consequences.

"It is unacceptable to involve the army, to incite against them, and to threaten them," Sharon said. Justice Minister Tommy Lapid, who compared the atmosphere to the lead-up to the 1995 assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin by a right-wing extremist, warned that Israel was "reserving the right" to place settlers and religious leaders in administrative detention over fears of incitement.

"I hope there will be no civil war in Israel but I am afraid there may be excesses that will lead to bloodshed," added Lapid. Opponents of Sharon's disengagement plan, which also envisages a tightening of Israeli control over large settlement blocs in the West Bank, were due to hold a mass protest rally in Al Quds on Sunday evening.

A collective prayer session was due to be held at the Western Wall in Al Quds's Old City, ahead of a rally in Zion Square and a candlelight vigil outside Sharon's residence.

The protest has been organized by the main settlers' organization, Yesha, which is predicting that more than 100,000 settlers and their supporters will attend. Yesha's deputy leader Eliezer Hisdai said Sharon and not the opponents had to bear responsibility for the consequences of the pullout from Gaza.

"If a civil war does break out, history will record that Sharon was in fact the instigator," Hisai said. Zvi Hendel, a deputy for the far-right National Union party who quit the ruling coalition in June in protest at the Gaza pullout plan, added that "Sharon risks plunging the country into civil war."

The resignation of Hendel and subsequent departure from government of other former right-wing allies has deprived Sharon of a parliamentary majority needed to gain approval for his so-called disengagement plan.

Sharon has shrugged off all attempts to block the Gaza pullout so far, including a defeat in a referendum among members of his Likud party and a protest in late July which saw more than 100,000 people form a human chain linking Gaza to Al Quds.

The premier's bureau chief meanwhile was due to travel to Washington to present a revised route of the controversial West Bank separation barrier. Dov Weisglass was expected to hold talks with US President George W. Bush's National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice on Monday and may also meet Secretary of State Colin Powell. -AFP