Israeli parliament on Monday voted against a bill calling for a referendum on the government's plan to evacuate settlements and troops in the Gaza Strip starting in July.

Seventy-two Knesset (parliament) members opposed the bill while only 39 lawmakers voted in favor and three abstained. The vote was widely seen as a victory for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who opposes a referendum, calling it a delaying tactic by opponents to his disengagement plan.

The Knesset's Law, Justice and Constitution Committee last Wednesday voted 9-8 in favor of a bill to hold a national referendum on Sharon's disengagement plan, sending it to the Knesset plenum for approval.

Settler leaders, fearing the defeat of the bill, asked it be removed from the Knesset agenda, but Likud Knesset member Michael Eitan, who has spearheaded efforts to pass the plebiscite bill, said the vote would go ahead.

The anti-disengagement rightists called for the referendum in the hope it could delay or foil Sharon's disengagement plan.

(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2005)