TEL AVIV, Jan 2: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told his cabinet on Sunday that a vote on removing Gaza settlements would be brought forward to January to give settlers more notice of evacuation, officials said.

The cabinet had been expected to vote in March, but Israel's attorney general advised that settlers would need notice of five to six months. The removal of Gaza settlements and four of 120 in the West Bank is set to begin in July.

"The final vote in the government will be towards the end of January," a senior official quoted Sharon as saying. The cabinet approved a four-phased withdrawal in principle two months ago, but said ministers would have to hold additional votes before any settlers are moved from land occupied by Israel since the 1967 war.

Western countries hail Sharon's "Disengagement Plan" as a possible step towards peace, but Palestinians fear it is a ruse to give up Gaza at the expense of a stronger Israeli hold on larger areas of the West Bank.

Some 8,000 Israelis are due to be withdrawn from Gaza, home to 1.3 million Palestinians. Some 230,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements scattered among 2.3 million Palestinians.

Sharon said the cabinet would set a timetable for removing settlements this month, but would meet again two weeks before any actual withdrawal to decide whether to go ahead.

"If there is terror we may delay it," Sharon said, referring to attacks by Palestinian militants. One minister said any delays were unlikely to last more than a few weeks.

Israel's parliament must also sign off on Sharon's plan, which it approved in a preliminary vote in November. No date has been set for a final vote in the 120-member Knesset.

Sharon, who has lost his parliamentary majority over the Gaza plan, hopes to forge a new government coalition this week that would allow him to press ahead with the withdrawal and avoid early elections.

The centre-left Labour party is ready to join Sharon's right-wing Likud. The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party is expected to decide this week. -Reuters