Members of Israel's ruling Likud Party started voting on Sunday on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan, which proposes to evacuate most of the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip but keep populous ones on the West Bank.

The polling stations opened at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) and were due to close at 10 p.m. (1900 GMT) for Likud's some 193,000 members to cast their votes. Results were expected by midnight local time.

Latest opinion polls showed that the plan will be rejected by Likud members during the party referendum by a margin of between one and eight percents, though 14 percent of party members were undecided.

The vote is not legally binding. Sunday's Ha'aretz said that a defeat of the disengagement plan in the referendum does not necessarily mean Sharon will suffer a political setback.

Should Sharon pull off an unexpected, last-minute victory, his political virtuosity will be praised, as will his ability to withstand pressure. Should his plan be defeated, Sharon will still notch a public triumph for having dared to bring his "separation plan" to the public, the paper said.

Under the so-called Sharon plan, Israel would evacuate 17 of the 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and take down four small West Bank settlements and complete construction of a West Bank separation barrier by the end of 2005.

Opponents say that an Israeli pullout will be seen as victory byPalestinian militants.

The disengagement plan has garnered support from the United States. During Sharon's visit to Washington in mid-April, US President George W. Bush gave an unprecedented support to the scheme, saying that a final status can not return to the 1949 borders and the Palestinian refugees can only return to the territories of a new Palestinian state, not Israel.
 
(Xinhua News Agency May 2, 2004)