Likud Chairman Tzachi HaNegbi, who also serves as Israel\'s Minister of the Environment, has informed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that 800 members of the party\'s Central Committee - more than enough, according to party regulations - have requested that the body convene as soon as possible. The members object to Sharon\'s statements in September in which he expressed support for a limited Palestinian state. They wish to have the Central Committee draft a resolution stipulating clearly that the Likud objects to a Palestinian state in any way, shape, or form.



Prime Minister Sharon is said to be wary of such a gathering for the above and other internal political considerations, not the least of which is the political threat represented by former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his sizeable group of supporters.