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Israeli Foreign Minister from the center-right Likud party Silvan Shalom agreed on Thursday evening to resign from the government on Friday after initially refusing to quit until Sunday, local newspaper Ha'aretz reported on its online edition.

Shalom made the decision following an reconciliation meeting with Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening, according to the report.

Earlier on Thursday, Shalom rejected Netanyahu's order that demanded Likud ministers to resign from the cabinet by 10 AM (08:00 GMT) on Thursday when Likud Central Committee starts a meeting to choose the party's list for the March 28 general elections.

Shalom had asserted that he would not quit until Sunday. Sources close to Shalom were quoted as saying that the four Likud ministers including Shalom were taken by surprise by Netanyahu's order as the party chairman had not personally discussed with them over the resignation timetable before announcing the ultimatum.

Shalom did not oppose the idea of quitting the cabinet, but the manner Netanyahu ordered the ministers to resign was unacceptable, the sources added.

But Shalom finally changed his mind after the meeting with Netanyahu and announced that he would not attend the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, the newspaper said.

On late Wednesday, Netanyahu, who was elected Likud chairman last month, formally issued the resignation order, a move seen as posing a challenge to Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who is a close ally with ailing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in their newly-founded Kadima party.

Health Minister Dan Naveh, Education Minister Limor Livnat and Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, all from Likud, presented to Netanyahu their resignations on late Thursday morning. Meanwhile, Likud Central Committee was engaged in heated discussion over the party's list for the upcoming parliamentary ballot as latest polls showed that the centrist Kadima party would beat both Likud and the center-left Labor party in the elections. Netanyahu vowed to withdraw Likud ministers out of the coalition government after being elected party head. But the walkout, originally scheduled for Sunday, had been postponed due to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's sudden grave illness. Likud ministers' resignation will leave Olmert with only six active ministers, all members of the Kadima party. But analysts said the Likud move would not deal a hard blow to the caretaker cabinet.

The massive Likud resignations came against a backdrop of intensifying election campaigning as Likud is trailing far behind Kadima in the polls.

In November, Sharon left Likud, a party he helped found decades ago, to shed rightists' bundle and win a free hand he said necessary toward a settlement to the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The veteran Israeli politician has been hospitalized since last Wednesday's massive stroke. He has remained in critical but stable condition despite latest slight improvements.

Despite polls giving favor to Kadima, analysts expect an open race of the coming ballot as medical experts said that even if Sharon survives, he is unlikely to return to the Israeli political stage.

(Xinhua News Agency January 13, 2006)