Parties 'backing West Bank pullout can join government'

Occupied Jerusalem: Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the front-runner in upcoming elections, said yesterday that political rivals must agree to a plan to withdraw from large parts of the West Bank if they want to join a government led by his Kadima Party.

Olmert's comments, made in a published interview five days before the election, gave the clearest signal yet of how the next Israeli government will look. Kadima holds a wide lead in opinion polls, but will need help from smaller parties to form a majority coalition government in parliament.

The tough conditions he laid out in the Yediot Ahronot daily, signalled that Olmert would like to join forces with the dovish Labour and Meretz parties, while he has apparently ruled out an alliance with the hawkish Likud Party.

Olmert also appeared to be sending a tough message to Avigdor Lieberman, leader of an increasingly powerful Russian immigrant party. Lieberman, a hard-line Jewish colonist, has not ruled out joining an Olmert-led government.

New polls published yesterday showed Kadima still holds a commanding lead over Labour and Likud, though the centrist party slid slightly in the surveys. Olmert inherited the Kadima leadership after party founder Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke in January.

A central part of Olmert's platform is drawing Israel's final borders within four years, if necessary through unilateral West Bank withdrawals. Olmert has said Israel's West Bank separation barrier, built to prevent suicide bombers from entering the country, will serve as the basis of the border. He wants to dismantle all colonies on the eastern side of the border.