JERUSLAEM, Oct. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Limor Livnat expressed hope on Tuesday that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would hold a national referendum on the Gaza pullout plan.

    Speaking during the Knesset (parliament) debate on the disengagement, Netanyahu, who was also the former prime minister, said a referendum was the only way to make the pullout plan legitimate.

    Netanyahu said a referendum would "prevent great danger" to the country such as "a deep rift, if not worse than that," and it also "gives us the possibility of effectively unifying the Likud." Netanyahu said he hoped the National Religious Party (NRP) would decide to stay in the coalition if a referendum was held, no matter what the results would be.

    Livnat said she believed Sharon would ultimately decide to carryout a referendum.

    She told the Knesset that Israel was compelled to leave the Gaza Strip, but that did not diminish the settlers' importance to the country.

    Livnat, Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom supported the disengagement plan, but favored holding a referendum in an effort to prevent the NRP from quitting the coalition. They said holding a referendum could prevent early elections and a rift in the Likud.

    Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper quoted Sharon's associates as saying Monday that Sharon intended to set up a unity government with Laborand Shinui Party immediately after a parliament vote scheduled for Tuesday evening on the disengagement plan.

    If the effort failed, Sharon would call new elections, the associates added.

    According to the newspaper, the associates explained that the NRP was almost certain to leave the government after Tuesday's vote, leaving Sharon with a coalition supported by only 55 members in the parliament.

    However, Sharon was confident of securing a solid majority on Tuesday's vote, with at least 66 out of a total of 120 Knesset members expected to vote in his favor. Enditem