Barak tells Israelis to choose between war and peace

Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ehud Barak, facing an electoral thrashing from arch-hawk Mr Ariel Sharon, told Israelis in a final pitch for votes that they must choose between war and peace.

"We are being called to decide whether between us and peace there is another blood-filled war," the embattled prime minister wrote in Yedioth Ahronothnewspaper, seeking to avert humiliation in tomorrow's election.

A Palestinian leader also said Middle East peace talks would be a casualty if Mr Sharon won, as all opinion polls predict.

"I do not believe that Palestinians have to contact Sharon or to negotiate with him," Mr Marwan Barghouthi, a leader of the mainstream Fatah movement in the West Bank, told Reuters.

We are being called to decide whether between us and peace there is another blood-filled war. Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ehud Barak

"The best way to deal with Sharon, the only way to deal with Sharon is the Intifada and the resistance," he said.

Mr Sharon, who has tried to shake off his warlike image during the campaign, ruled out any peace talks until violence stops.

"The Israeli government, under my leadership, will not hold negotiations under fire and will not grant any prize for violence. Only after the violence ends...will we resume negotiations," he wrote in Yedioth Ahronothtoday.

Mr Barak has been under fire for failing to make peace or quell a Palestinian revolt against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He has desperately tried to rally traditional leftwing supporters, Russian immigrants and Israeli Arabs, still smarting from the deaths of 13 of their number in October during protests in support of the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising.

His aggressive electioneering has contrasted sharply with the low-key campaign run by Mr Sharon, who seems confident that victory is assured and is reluctant to risk a wrong move.

Many voters believe that Mr Sharon, the most hated Israeli in the Arab world, will take tough action to deal with the violence that has overshadowed the two-month election campaign.

At least 382 people have been killed - 318 Palestinians, 51 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs - since the uprising erupted in September amid a peacemaking deadlock.

Reuters