"Mr Sharon has met today with (Foreign Minister) Silvan Shalom and should meet in the days to come with other Likud ministers to explain the principles" behind his disengagement plan, Assaf Shariv told AFP.

Hard-right members of Sharon's governing coalition have threatened to quit in protest at his plans to pull Jewish settlers out of most of Gaza as part of a package of unilateral measures intended to make up for the lack of progress in the Middle East peace process.

Shalom is understood to be opposed to the Gaza pullout on the grounds that it would encourage Palestinian attacks but his porfolio would be particularly vulnerable if the opposition Labour party replaced hardliners in the coalition.

In a surpise move, Sharon dispatched deputy premier Ehud Olmert instead of Shalom to Washington late last week to woo US support for his project.

Shariv added that Sharon would hold talks on Monday with his powerful Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Limor Livnat who are seen as two of his most likely successors.

Meetings have also been arranged for Thursday with Agriculture Minister Israel Katz and Minister with Portfolio Uzi Landau, the two Likud ministers most opposed to his proposals.

Senior US officials were expected here later this week to discuss the disengagement plan as well as plans to reroute Israel's controversial West Bank separation barrier closer to the territory's borders, reports said.

The Maariv daily said the aim was to secure US support for the annexation of Jewish settlements in the West Bank which will eventually lie on the Israeli side of the barrier.

The major settlements of Ariel and Maale Adumim are expected to fall on the Israeli side of the barrier when it is completed next year.

Israel insists the barrier is essential for its security but the Palestinians see it as little more than a land grab.

The legality of the barrier is to be the subject of a hearing before the International Court of Justice in The Hague which is due to begin on February 23.

Maariv also reported that Israel was likely to ratchet up its military operations in Gaza ahead of the pullout to ward off accusations that it represented an act of weakness.

The funeral was taking place Sunday of Aziz al-Shami, a senior military official of the Islamic Jihad movement, who was killed in an Israeli air strike the day before. A 12-year-old boy was also killed in the attack.

Another Palestinian militant was shot dead Sunday morning after Israeli troops backed by helicopters raided the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip.

Ashraf Abu Libdeh, a member of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), died of multiple bullet wounds after troops had surrounded his house, medics and witnesses said.

Six other Palestinians, including the victim's six-year-old nephew, were also wounded in exchanges of fire, sources at Rafah hospital told AFP.

The troops had entered Rafah at around 5:00 am (0300 GMT), travelling in around 10 tanks and several jeeps with two Apache assault helicopters flying overhead.

An army spokesman said the victim had been shot as he tried to escape from his house during an operation to find tunnels used to smuggle weapons under the Israeli-controlled border with Egypt.

Meanwhile Palestinian premier Ahmed Qorei said yesterday that he hoped to hold his first meeting with his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon by the end of the month.

"I believe that there will be a meeting with Sharon before the end of February," Qorei told journalists after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

He said the head of his office Hassan Abu Libdeh and top negotiator Saeb Erakat would meet Sharon aide Dov Weisglass on February 15 to prepare for the meeting.

During a first round of preparatory talks in Jerusalem last week, "all the questions on the (meeting's) agenda were examined, but we did not reach agreement on all the questions," Qorei said.

The Palestinian premier has yet to meet Sharon since his appointment late last year in one of the starkest indications of the deadlock in the Middle East peace process.