¡¡JERUSALEM, May 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharonon Tuesday cancelled a May 17 trip to the United States for talks with President George W. Bush after an overwhelming defeat of his unilateral disengagement plan in a referendum of Likud members on Sunday.

    Sharon had scheduled to speak to the US pro-Israel lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Washington,during his trip, but he has informed the AIPAC that he will not, asoriginally planned, attend the organization's annual conference.

    Israeli officials said Sharon will not return to Washington until he has another diplomatic program in hand.

    Sharon met with Bush some three weeks ago in Washington and was originally expected to meet with him again during the trip to the AIPAC conference.

    The prime minister was also expected to use the opportunity to meet Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

    Kerry wanted to meet Sharon when the latter was in Washington last time, but Sharon, who was there for only two nights, said a meeting could not be arranged.

    Officials in the prime minister's office said Sharon was to meetTuesday with US Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurzter, his first talk with an American official since the referendum.

    The US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher on Monday termed Sharon's defeat as a setback, but arguing that Sharon's plan, publicly welcomed by Bush during Sharon's visit to Washingtonin April, could still be a way to move peace talks forward.

    In Sunday's referendum, some 59.5 percent of Likud voters opposed Sharon's plan, which calls for a withdrawal from all settlements in Gaza and four settlements in the West Bank, while some 39.7 percent voted in favor of the plan. Enditem