JERUSALEM, Oct 12: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was stepping up his efforts to stitch together a new governing coalition on Tuesday after his Gaza pullout plan suffered an embarrassing reverse in parliament.

Legislators voted 53 to 44 on Monday against the prime minister's speech at the beginning of the winter parliamentary session, which was largely centred on his so-called disengagement plan, after it was opposed by several members of Mr Sharon's own Likud party and by the main opposition Labour party.

While the vote was largely symbolic, it underlined how Mr Sharon has few options but to bring Labour into government if he wants a majority for his pullout plan when it is put to a formal vote in parliament in two weeks' time.

Labour has given its qualified backing for the plan, which will see all 8,000 Jewish residents of Gaza uprooted from their homes next year, but deputy premier Ehud Olmert said it was now time for the party to come off the fence.

"There is no doubt that the Labour party is the priority for the enlargement of the coalition but what we need to know is whether they really want to take part in crucial decisions in power," Mr Olmert told public radio on Tuesday.

Sharon lost his overall majority in June when some traditional allies baulked at the pullout plan while some Likud MPs are furious that Mr Sharon is still pushing on with a project that was rejected in a party referendum in May.

Ehud Olmert, Ariel Sharon's closest ally in government, said the current political instability was "dangerous", as he attacked right-wing Likud opponents of Mr Sharon for risking "the collapse of Likud and the fall of the government". -AFP