TEL AVIV, May 13: Israel’s ruling Likud Party passed a resolution on Sunday saying it would never agree to an independent Palestinian state, a victory for former Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu over Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

A senior Palestinian official said the vote was a blow to efforts to revive the Middle East peace process.

In Washington, a White House spokesman said President George W. Bush would keep pressing for the creation of a Palestinian state, despite the Likud Party’s vote to such a move.

Sharon, responding to pressure from within his party, had told a Likud convention that Palestinians must end suicide bombings and undertake political reform before there could be any talk of establishing a state.

But party members rejected his position, voting in favour of a resolution put forward by Netanyahu that simply ruled out an independent Palestinian state.—Agencies