Israel's leader-designate Mr Ariel Sharon and outgoing Prime Minister Mr Ehud Barak began a joint battle today to win support for a unity government they said would be amenable to peacemaking with the Palestinians.
Mr Barak was expected to meet influential members of his Labour Party to try to put down opposition to his plan to join forces with Mr Sharon's right-wing Likud Party.
Labour could meet to consider the coalition plan as early as Tuesday.
Mr Sharon and Mr Barak are also closely watching the crisis involving Baghdad following US and British air strikes against Iraq on Friday.
Israel and the United States pushed ahead with plans to start a joint military exercise in the Negev desert involving Patriot missiles - which were used against Iraqi Scud missiles during the Gulf War a decade ago.
The Israeli army said the long-planned six-day exercise was not linked to the recent crisis in Iraq, which shot 39 Scud missiles on Tel Aviv during the 1991 war.
Mr Barak agreed in principle last week to join forces with Mr Sharon in a broad left-right coalition government to tackle the unrest. He lost to Mr Sharon in an election on February 6th.
Mr Sharon has appealed to opponents not to derail the coalition plans in a statement issued yesterday.
But "dovish" Justice Minister Mr Yossi Beilin and Foreign Minister Mr Shlomo Ben-Ami have expressed bitter opposition to the coalition.
A Dahaf Institute opinion poll in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper today found 72 per cent of Barak voters want Labour to join forces with Likud and 51 per cent of them want the outgoing leader to be defence minister in such a government.
In new violence, a roadside bomb exploded in the Gaza Strip today but no casualties were reported.
Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen exchanged fire yesterday in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Gun battles also erupted between the West Bank village of Beit Jala and the Jewish settlement of Gilo on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
Meanwhile a state inquiry today began hearing testimony on the deaths of the 13 Israeli Arabs killed during clashes with Israeli police in northern Israel at the start of the Palestinian uprising.