Israel's Labor Party has voted to join a government of national unity under the leadership of the Prime Minister elect, Ariel Sharon. The party's central committee voted by secret ballot after a stormy five-hour meeting in Tel Aviv. Leading the call to join a unity government with the right wing Likud party was the former Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, who told the meeting that the time had come to listen to the nation.
In one of his most fiery speeches in years, the Nobel peace prize laureate tried to rally a fragmented, centre-left party behind his vision of a political partnership with right-winger Ariel Sharon, whom he said would make "painful concessions" for peace. Mr Sharon must form a government by the end of March or face new elections.
The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has said that he is not optimistic about a resumption of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in the near future. Speaking in Kuwait last night after meeting Mr Sharon and the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, Mr Powell said that all that could be hoped for now is a reduction in violence.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian teenager was shot dead by Israeli soldiers today during a gunfight at a West Bank refugee camp near Ramallah. His death brings to 420 the number of people killed since an anti-Israeli uprising broke out in late September. Most of the victims have been Palestinian.
