TEL AVIV, Feb 9: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon slapped down his rebellious Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom on Tuesday, insisting that there was no question of his Gaza Strip pullout plan being subjected to a referendum.

After Shalom said he would lead a campaign for the premier's flagship policy to be put before the people, Sharon not only rejected the idea but said it was tantamount to a threat.

"There will be no referendum on the disengagement plan," he was quoted as saying by public radio. "The proposals on this subject resemble threats and I never yield to threats."

Speaking in a television interview on Tuesday night, Shalom insisted that he did not want to wreck the disengagement plan but said that a referendum would help end divisions within the country.

"I intend to lead a public, parliamentary and political initiative in favour of a referendum," he told private television. "I believe general agreement should be obtained from the people to avoid a serious struggle."

Shalom was conspicuous by his absence at Tuesday's summit between Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in Egypt where the Israeli premier reiterated that he was "absolutely determined to implement the disengagement plan".

Under the terms of the plan, the principles of which have already been approved by parliament, all 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip should be evacuated by September of this year. Four small Jewish enclaves in the northern West Bank are also to be dismantled.

In turn, Sharon is hoping his plan will ease pressure on Israel to implement a much wider evacuation in other parts of the West Bank where the vast majority of the some 245,000 settlers live.

Interior Minister Ophir Pines also said the push for a referendum was designed to sabotage the plan, rather than prevent a rift in the country.

"All those who today call for a referendum, want, in other words, to sabotage the withdrawal from Gaza and the disengagement," he told army radio.

"We have not yet tried the tool of a referendum. It will produce a much greater split. I think that the results would be unfortunate for Israeli society."

In contrast, Shaul Goldstein, a settler leader from the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the West Bank insisted that only a referendum could lead to calm.

"Demand for a referendum crosses party lines," said Goldstein. "And the prime minister is afraid of a referendum, and is running away from it, and all his accelerated urgency and moves attest to the fact that he knows that the people are not in favour of disengagement."-Reuters