The argument erupted during Sunday's weekly Cabinet meeting, according to participants. It reflected stiff opposition to the disengagement plan from within Sharon's own governing team, where his own party and two of his three coalition partners are identified with Jewish settlers - much as Sharon himself was for decades.

Israeli security forces were on high alert, preparing for the weeklong Jewish holiday of Passover, which starts Monday evening.

The military banned all Palestinians from entering Israel to try to ward off attacks. In 2002, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a hotel lobby during a Passover dinner, killing 29.

Sharon has proposed leaving the Gaza Strip and redeploying in the West Bank - removing troops and uprooting settlements in the process - to reduce friction between Israelis and Palestinians after more than three years of violence.

He has said he will carry out the plan next year if peace moves with the Palestinians remain stalled. In weekend interviews, Sharon said for the first time that Israel would pull out of all the settlements in Gaza, reversing an earlier indication that three settlements in northern Gaza would remain.

The pullback in the West Bank would be much more limited - only four of about 135 settlements would be removed.

Reuters adds: Israel plans to remove all its settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in the West Bank under a plan to "disengage" unilaterally from the Palestinians, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday.

"There are some details still to work out, but I believe our intention is to leave all of them," Sharon told Army Radio in reference to 21 fortified Gaza enclaves. Previously the prime minister was quoted as saying Israel would remove 17 of them.

Asked about which of the scores of settlements in the West Bank were slated for evacuation under his go-it-alone plan, Sharon said: "We are talking about four settlements in Samaria (northern West Bank), no more."