Sharon's party willing to see Palestinian state

Presenting party plans ahead of the March 28 parliamentary elections, Sharon confidante and Justice Minister Tzippi Livni said the movement would seek a "demilitarised Palestinian state not involved in terrorism."

A draft manifesto under debate backs the creation of a demilitarised Palestinian state while seeking to maintain Israeli sovereignty over annexed east Jerusalem and the largest Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank.

Despite no international recognition, Israel regards Jerusalem as its united and eternal capital, including the city's Arab eastern sector, occupied since 1967 and home to some 200,000 Palestinians.

Kadima also wants wildcat outposts all over the West Bank -- seen by Jews as the land of Israel -- dismantled at once. The West Bank is far more Biblically important than Gaza, from which Sharon withdrew Israeli troops and settlers in September.

"We have to give up part of the land of Israel to establish a Jewish and democratic state," the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper quoted the Kadima platform as saying.

Sharon quit Likud having grown exasperated with right-wingers who refused to forgive him for pulling troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip.