SHIMON PERES:Foreign Minister, 77.
Mr Peres shared the Nobel peace prize with President Yasser Arafat and the late Yitzhak Rabin for his part in forging the historic 1993 Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians.
A key proponent of an alliance between Labour and Mr Sharon's right-wing Likud party, Mr Peres's reputation as a statesman is expected to help prevent the government ofSharon, a former general viewed by Arabs as a warmonger, from being isolated internationally. Mr Peres opposes Mr Sharon's calls for peace talks to resume only after a more than five-month-old Palestinian uprising ends.
BINYAMIN BEN-ELIEZER:Defence Minister, 65.
A Labour Partyhawk and former general, the Iraqi-born Mr Ben-Eliezer has similarviews to Mr Sharon's about quashing the uprising. He opposes resumingpeace talks with the Palestinians until the violence ends.
SILVAN SHALOM:Finance Minister, 42.
Mr Shalom is not aproponent of fiscal restraint, but is respected by financial marketswhich see him as well qualified to serve as finance minister becausehe holds degrees in public policy, economics and law.
The Tunisian- born Mr Shalom has served in parliament since 1992 and held posts asdeputy defence minister in 1997 and science minister in 1998. He alsohas been chairman of the finance and energy committees.
ELI YISHAI:Interior Minister, 38.
The political leader ofthe ultra-Orthodox Shas party will be in a position to controlrelations between the state and powerful religious groups. Mr Yishaiserved as Labour and Welfare Minister in Mr Ehud Barak's governmentuntil Shas left the coalition last July over peace moves with thePalestinians.
Mr Yishai is considered to have hawkish views on peace.Under a coalition agreement with Mr Sharon, he will also hold thelargely symbolic post of deputy prime minister. He and Mr Peres willrun the country whenever Mr Sharon is abroad.
NATAN SHARANSKY:Housing and Construction Minister, 53.
Theformer Soviet Jewish dissident heads the Yisrael ba-Aliya party ofRussian immigrants, tens of thousands of whom arrived after Moscowflung open the doors to Israel starting in 1989. A right-winger, MrSharansky has joined governments led by both Mr Sharon's Likud andLabour.
SALEH TARIF:Minister-Without-Portfolio, 47.
The Druzelawmaker, from the Labour Party, becomes Israel's first non-Jewishcabinet member. Arab, Druze and Bedouin citizens of Israel comprisenearly one-fifth of the population and complain of decades ofentrenched discrimination.
AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN:National Infrastructures Minister, 42.
Aburly, bearded Russian immigrant who was the bureau chief of staff toformer Prime Minister Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Lieberman espouses aget-tough policy with the Arabs.
Head of the Yisrael Beitenu party,he recently said at a meeting with foreign diplomats that a Sharongovernment would not hesitate to fire missiles at Egypt's Aswan Damand at the Iranian capital Tehran if regional fighting erupted.
REHAVAM ZEEVI:Tourism Minister, 74.
While chief of theIsraeli army's central command, he kept a lion as a mascot at hisheadquarters. As leader of the National Union party, with four seatsin the 120-member parliament, the former general champions a policyof transfer - or expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank andGaza Strip.
He has said such a population move is a nationalnecessity for Israel, whose security he believes depends on holdingon to occupied territory devoid of hostile Arabs.
DALIA RABIN-PELOSSOF:Deputy Defence Minister, 50.
A labour lawyer, she is the daughter of Mr Yitzhak Rabin, the soldier-turned-politician who as prime minister was assassinated in 1995 by a right-wing religious Jew opposed to his policy of swapping land for peace. Elected to parliament in 1999 as part of the Centre Party, she now forms a one-woman New Way faction.