Israel?s right-wing Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out joining interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in a future government yesterday, in protest at Olmert?s planned unilateral West Bank withdrawals.

The pledge bolstered speculation that Olmert?s centrist Kadima Party, predicted to win March 28 elections, would team up with center-left Labour for a coalition robust enough to quit occupied land in the face of Jewish ultranationalist opposition.

Netanyahu quit Prime Minister Ariel Sharon?s cabinet in protest at last year?s Gaza Strip withdrawal, calling it a capitulation to Palestinian violence. Olmert, who assumed Sharon?s powers after his January 4 stroke, has promised similar moves in the West Bank should peace talks remain stalled. ?Certainly we will not be able to sit in a government predicated along these lines?, Netanyahu, a former prime minister, told Israel?s Maariv newspaper.

Palestinians want all of the West Bank and Gaza, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, for a state. Many Israeli rightists consider the land a Jewish biblical birthright.

Olmert said in interviews published last week he planned to impose permanent Israeli borders by 2010 unless Hamas, an Islamic militant group that swept Palestinian elections on January 25, renounced violence and recognized the Jewish state.

Hamas has so far refused to do so. Even under a peace accord, Olmert has said, Israel will keep major Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank. Such future de facto annexations have been endorsed by both Labour and Likud, but condemned by Palestinians as imperiling peace efforts.

Citing Israeli government sources, Haaretz daily said Olmert briefed the United States before going public with his plans. A U.S. blessing is crucial to any major Israeli-Palestinian moves.

Buttressed by smaller factions, Verter added, Olmert would be assured of a ?stable coalition? until the next scheduled election in 2010.

A survey commissioned by Israel?s Army Radio projected Kadima winning 37 of parliament?s 120 seats in the upcoming poll, with Labour a distant second at 18. Likud trailed at 16 seats, but political analysts say its prospects could be boosted by any resurgence of a Palestinian revolt that erupted in 2000. Spokespeople for Kadima and Labour said the parties would be open to the idea forming a coalition government.

Dan WILLIAMS