Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, bolstered by reports that he will avoid prosecution for corruption, on Sunday will unveil his revamped Gaza Strip withdrawal plan to his cabinet, where aides say he is likely to win a tight vote.
Public radio reported that ministers were to receive written drafts of the proposal for their review on Thursday, three days before the crucial weekly cabinet meeting.
The new plan calls for a phased military pullout as well as the evacuation of 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and a few in the northern West Bank.
Sharon got much-needed good news when Israeli media reported that Attorney General Menahem Mazuz would opt in mid-June not to indict him in connection with a lingering corruption scandal due to lack of evidence.
Although sources close to the inquiry said no final decision had been made, Mazuz was leaning toward closing the case, in which Sharon and his son Gilad were suspected of accepting bribes from influential contractor David Appel for help in securing a Greek property deal.
Such a decision would free Sharon from the threat of indictment that has dogged him for months and would likely have forced him to resign.
On the political front, the situation also looks brighter for Sharon ahead of the key cabinet meeting.
Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told military radio that Sharon had clinched the support of "12 or maybe even 13 ministers" in the 23-member cabinet for his so-called "separation plan".
Humiliated on May 2 when his own Likud party rejected his first draft proposal to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza, Sharon has tirelessly worked to convince sceptical ministers to accept the modified plan, which has US backing.
Under the new plan, after a nine-month preparation period, the settlements that are at greatest risk of being targeted by violence would be the first to be evacuated.
The homes of 7,500 Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip would be destroyed, according to media reports. Under the initial plan, the houses would have been handed over to the Palestinians.
By the end of the process, the Israeli army would have withdrawn from the whole area except for the strip known as the Philadelphia road along the border with Egypt in the Rafah sector, the scene of a large-scale Israeli operation that left 43 Palestinians dead before the army pulled out on Monday.
By choosing to proceed with a step-by-step approach, Sharon would allow the government to put a halt to the evacuation depending on the situation on the ground, an aide close to the prime minister said.
Sharon thus hopes to reassure wary ministers and convince the National Religious Party (NRP), one of two far-right parties in his coalition with six MPs in the 120-member Knesset, to remain in government.
But the National Union, another right-wing party and coalition member that holds eight parliamentary seats, has vowed to leave the government if the Gaza withdrawal plan goes through.
Within Sharon's Likud, about 10 deputies of a total of 40 led by two ministers without portfolio, Uzi Landau and Natan Sharansky, have said they will oppose any plan that calls for the evacuation of Jewish settlements.
But the prime minister has said he will push the plan through no matter what, suggesting he could change the composition of his ruling coalition to do so - an allusion to the possible inclusion of the opposition Labour party. Sharon enjoys widespread public support for his plan, with a recent poll showing that 71 percent of Israelis are behind a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Among Likud voters, 63 percent back the initiative.
The left-wing opposition indirectly helped Sharon's cause when more than 150,000 protesters flooded the streets of Tel Aviv on May 15 to demand an withdrawal from Gaza, after 13 Israeli soldiers were killed in the territory.
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