JERUSALEM, March 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel S haron met Thursday morning with leaders of the Shinui party in beefed up efforts to push through the 2005 state budget, Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported.

    Although no agreement was reached at the meeting, Shinui leaders Yosef Lapid and Avraham Poraz hinted for the first time that the party, with its 14 votes in the Knesset (parliament), may reverse its opposition to the budget, said the report.

    Shinui leaders had conditioned their support to the budget on Sharon's building of a secular government based on the Likud, Labor and Shinui, it added.

    Angered by Sharon's efforts to win religious parties' support by giving more funds to religious projects, the Shinui decided to oppose the budget last December.

    At the meeting Sharon restressed that voting against the budget in the Knesset would jeopardize the implementation of the disengagement plan.

    The Knesset is believed to be deadlocked over the budget, which by law must be approved by March 31 for the government to survive.   If the Knesset fails to pass the budget, the government will be dissolved and early elections will be automatically called, which are probably to be held in late June. The Sharon-sponsored disengagement plan will then be shelved.

    Shinui's stance can prove decisive in the vote since Sharon is in eager search for an overall majority in the Knesset to ensure the passage of the budget.

    Cornered by his own right-wing Likud party as 13 MPs rebel against him for the disengagement plan and vow to vote against the budget to block its implementation, Sharon has been stepping up effort to save the pullout plan.

    Under the plan, Israel will evacuate all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four of the 120 in the West Bank by the year end. Enditem