Defense Minister and Labor Party leader Amir Peretz doubts that Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu will join the government, his aides said Sunday, calling coalition talks with the party a holiday media spin.

Vice Premier Shimon Peres said earlier Sunday he does not believe it is likely that Yisrael Beiteinu party will join the government.

In an interview broadcast on Channel 10 on Sunday, Peres explained that should the faction join the cabinet, Labor MKs may bolt the government.

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Labor has 19 MKs, while Yisrael Beiteinu has only 11 and Peres says such a move would cause a deficit of eight MKs in the coalition.

The vice premier rejected Lieberman's call to change the form of government and initiate strong presidential rule in Israel.

"Israel does not need to change to a presidential regime, it needs a plan. [Former Israeli prime ministers David] Ben Gurion and [Menachem] Begin advanced controversial issues despite the parliamentary system, and this is because they had a clear plan," Peres said.

But Labor Party ministers on Sunday were not rejecting the entry of Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party into the governing coalition.

In light of the impending budget vote and the fact that Labor MKs won't necessarily support the budget, Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon (Labor) said he understands Olmert's desire to expand his coalition.

Simhon said he would not reject bringing Lieberman into the government and adopting some of his proposed ideas on governmental changes.

Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor) also said Lieberman could join the government it he accepts its basic platform.

Tourism Minister Issac Herzog (Labor) said Lieberman's entry into the government will not take place in the near future. Herzog said that Lieberman has an agenda matching Olmert's but noted their interests clash.

Late on Sunday, Defense Minister Amir Peretz's aides dismissed the idea of Yisrael Beiteinu joining the government as a "media spin fit for the holidays."

Lieberman to Haaretz: Coalition talks could take 2 hours
Lieberman told Haaretz on Sunday that if he does decide to take his right-wing party into the government, negotiations over conditions would take less than two hours.

Lieberman reached an agreement with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday that Kadima would support Lieberman's bill proposal to change the system of government when it is submitted to the Knesset for a preliminary reading.

The allocation of ministerial posts to Yisrael Beiteinu will not be a bar to the party's entry into the government, Lieberman said.

"If there are negotiations on our entry into the government, and we decide that we want to join, it will take an hour or two," the Russian-born politician said. He added, however, the decision would not be made until after the preliminary reading of his bill to change the system of government.

According to Lieberman, there is no point in discussing the allocation of ministerial posts, as Yisrael Beiteinu has no immediate plans to join the coalition.

He said that his and Olmert's positions have moved closer together since the prime minister abandoned his plan for unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank, and agreed to support his plan for a presidential system of government.

"There has been a nearing of positions, but the real test is in the Knesset - what happens at the preliminary reading of the bill to change the system of government," Lieberman said. "The issue of the ministries is not on the agenda."

Senior Labor cabinet minister Ophir Pines-Paz, responding to widespread reports of the planned cooperation between Olmert and Lieberman, earlier Sunday ruled out Labor involvement in a future possible future coalition between Kadima and Yisrael Beiteinu.

During their lengthy meeting Friday, which was arranged at the prime minister's request, Olmert and Lieberman agreed to work together to create a constitution and make structural changes to the system of government.

The agreement reached Friday is viewed as the first confidence-building measure between the two sides. Figures close to Olmert said Saturday that Lieberman is an attractive coalition partner.

Senior Kadima officials suggested that Olmert wants to have a few coalition options firmly in hand before the Knesset winter session begins, partly to fill the vacuum left by the removal of the West Bank pullout from his political agenda and to divert attention from the controversy over the war in Lebanon.

Associates of Lieberman are saying that he would enter the government if all five of his conditions are met: changing the system of government, ending unilateral foreign policy initiatives, canceling the plan to evacuate illegal settler outposts, removing the pullout plan from the agenda, passing a law to permit secular marriage and establishing a government commission of inquiry on the war in Lebanon.

Olmert is opposed to the last item. Even so, Lieberman associates say the chances of Yisrael Beiteinu's joining the coalition have risen since the convergence idea was scrapped, and that Olmert is willing to cooperate over a change in the form of government.

'No common denominator'
Pines-Paz told Israel Radio on Sunday that Labor "has no real common denominator with Yisrael Beiteinu, with the party of Avigdor Lieberman."

"It's no secret that our economic outlook and Lieberman's are completely different, and our political-diplomatic outlook, even more so," he added.

In particular, Pines-Paz said, "He is against evacuating outposts, which is one of the most central issues for us. This is something that we have brought to the cabinet. There is a program which the Labor Party chairman [Peretz] and I formulated on the eve of the elections. For us, this is a [main plank of our] platform.

"We are insisting that this government, this very government, evacuate illegal outposts, and stop the process so that no new outposts are established in the future."

Meanwhile, Yisrael Beiteinu MK Esterina Tartman said Sunday that her party's stand against removing illegal outposts was an "ultimate demand."

"Our debate with them is over what is illegal. If some neighborhood or other is enlarged, and someone in some court prefers to define it that way, while a legal expert at a different level describes it differently, the issue is open to interpretation."

Olmert briefed Peretz about the Lieberman meeting only after the fact. A statement from Peretz's office said that the prime minister has the right to meet with whomever he sees fit.

Senior Labor officials believe Olmert was signaling Peretz that the Labor chief is not irreplaceable, a message that may have been sent with the upcoming budget talks in mind.

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