Israel's Labour Party votes to join Sharon government

9:02 AM

TEL AVIV - Israel's Labor Party has voted to join a national unity government proposed by Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon.

"The decision commits all of us by a clear majority," Cohen said, saying the proposal to join the coalition passed by a majority of 67 per cent in the 1,600-member Central Committee.

Sharon crushed Labour's Ehud Barak in the February 6 prime ministerial election, and invited the party to join a unity government that would tackle a nearly five-month-old Palestinian uprising and chart a new peacemaking course.

The vote cleared the way for Sharon to form a broad-based government also likely to include religious and far-right parties.

- REUTERS

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