Israel's Sharon to lead new party into looming election battle.

(From AP Worldstream)

Byline: STEVE WEIZMAN

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said goodbye to the party he helped create more than three decades ago and set out to lead a new, centrist faction, pledging to work for a peace deal with the Palestinians and address Israel's social and economic ills.

At a press conference Monday evening, Sharon ruled out more unilateral withdrawals in the West Bank and said he remains committed to the internationally backed "road map" plan, which calls for a negotiated peace deal culminating in a Palestinian state.

"There is no additional disengagement plan," he told a nationally televised news conference, referring to Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements last summer. "There is the road map."

Sharon, however acknowledged that further settlements would be dismantled as part of future a negotiated peace treaty with the Palestinians.

"When we get to the final stage of the road map, when we get to (defining) the permanent borders of the state of Israel, one could assume that some of the settlements will not be able to remain there," he said. He reiterated that Israel would hold on to major settlement blocs in the West Bank where most of Israel's 235,000 settlers live, and demanded that Palestinians disarm militant groups before progress could be made on the road map.