(9 Feb 2001) Natural Sound
XFA
Only three days after Ariel Sharon trounced Ehud Barak in elections for prime minister, the two met Friday at the Prime Minister's office, to discuss opposing views on such matters as the peace process in efforts to form a national unity government.
In an apparent gesture to Sharon, Barak said Thursday that the new government should not be bound to any ideas raised in the peace process with the Palestinians in the past months.
Sharon beat Barak by almost 24 percentage points in Tuesday's elections on a platform to back down on proposals Barak made to the Palestinians in peace talks.
Sharon has also demanded the Palestinians cease attacks before negotiations continue.
In recent peace talks, Barak had offered the Palestinians 95 percent of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and control in parts of Jerusalem.
The Palestinians said the proposals did not go far enough.
Sharon has until March 30 to get a government approved by the parliament or else new elections for prime minister will be called.
Barak's Labor party was the first Sharon invited for coalition talks, which began Thursday evening.
Officials from Sharon's Likud party told the Labor representatives that they would be offered such top portfolios as the defense and foreign ministries, Israeli media reported.
But the Labor representatives said they wanted details on Sharon's plans for the peace process before they agreed to discuss the distribution of ministries.
The two teams will meet again Sunday, Israel radio reported.
Barak and another party leader, Shimon Peres, told a Labor party meeting Thursday that they were open to the idea of the party joining a government with Sharon.
Barak said Thursday that he wanted to lead the Labor team in the coalition talks, although he announced Wednesday that he was resigning from the party leadership.
His resignation was slated to take effect once the new government was formed.
If Sharon is unable to form a government with Labor in the near future, he is expected to turn to right-wing parties to form a narrow coalition.
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