Israel's Labour party paved the way for a general election early next year by voting Sunday to pull out of government as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon mulled quitting his right-wing Likud faction.
The motion to leave the governing coalition, approved by an overwhelming show of hands at a meeting of Labour's central committee, came after new leader Amir Peretz said the party should stop propping up the current regime.
In his first keynote speech since his shock election earlier this month, Peretz said it was time to breathe life back into the peace process which has been effectively frozen for the last five years.
"We are offering a real alternative to the apocalyptic outlook that there is no one to talk with, and that we must always live with our sword in hand," said Peretz to an ecstatic ovation at the meeting in Tel Aviv.
"The state of Israel has to reach peace for its own sake."
The decision of the central committee was a formality after Peretz's election which had been secured on a platform to pull out of the coalition.
In talks last week, Sharon and Peretz agreed in principle that elections should be brought forward from November 2006 to either February or March.
An exact date looks likely to be set on Wednesday in a parliamentary vote amid widespread expectations that polling will take place on March 28. The ministers' resignation letters are expected to be handed in on Monday.
All bets on the outcome of the election are off at the moment, however, as Sharon ponders a split from Likud, the party which he formed in 1973 but many of whose members refuse to forgive him for pulling troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip over the summer.
Sharon, 77, is increasingly fed up with hard-liners in his party who are bound to make his life even tougher during the next parliament if he tries to oversee more unilateral pullouts from the West Bank.
Anticipating his split from the party, six senior members have already publicly or privately indicated that they want to take the helm - including Sharon's arch rival Benjamin Netanyahu.
Results from a poll published Friday suggested that a new Sharon-led party would likely win 28 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, compared to only 18 for Likud.
Apart from taking a rump of Likud members with him, Sharon is also expected to try and attract the more right-leaning Labour party members, such as current deputy prime minister Shimon Peres who was ousted as party leader by Peretz.
"I wanted to thank you for all your work within the government, it is the start of the joint work between us," Sharon told Peres at the outset of the weekly cabinet meeting.
Speaking after the meeting, the 82 year old did not give the impression that he was about to retire. "It doesn't matter about the next government, but we have to continue working on these (development) issues for the good of the people," he said.
Amid a welter of speculation about his intentions, the widespread view was that Sharon would announce a split from Likud this week.
"Senior Likud officials believe that Sharon is about to smash the existing political establishment in Israel to pieces and to build on its ruins a system that will crystallise and remain stable for years to come," said the main Yediot Aharonot daily.