TEL AVIV, Nov 1: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Friday offered the post of foreign minister to his main rival in the right-wing Likud party, Binyamin Netanyahu, an Israeli diplomatic source said.

Netanyahu, a former prime minister and hardliner who has accused Sharon of not going far enough to quell a Palestinian uprising, would move a new Israeli government in the making even farther to the right.

He would also present a sharp contrast to dovish Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who resigned when the centre-left Labour Party pulled out of Sharon’s coalition government on Wednesday.

The Israeli diplomatic source said Sharon, now trying to build a narrow right-wing government, agreed to hold a follow-up meeting with Netanyahu on Sunday during the talks at the prime minister’s ranch in southern Israel.

“The talks lasted for 90 minutes and it was an excellent meeting,” the source said.

Sharon asked Netanyahu to join the government “on the basis of the guidelines of the current government and to work together on the challenges facing Israel,” the source said.

The guidelines of the government were hammered out by Sharon and Labour when the prime minister took office in March 2001 and included a pledge not to build new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu, 53, popularly known as “Bibi”, has said he will challenge Sharon in the yet to be scheduled Likud leadership election, a goal that could stop him accepting the post.

Sharon, riding high in opinion polls, has vowed to go on leading the country, suggesting he wants to avoid early elections and a challenge by Netanyahu, prime minister from 1996 to 1999, for the Likud leadership.

POSSIBLE DEAL: Israeli media said the two rivals might work out a deal whereby Sharon would serve a half-term as prime minister and then be replaced by Netanyahu for the remaining two years should the Likud win the next general elections within the coming year.