Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his new foreign minister, Benjamin Netanyahu , had their first dispute hours after Netanyahu's appointment, media reports said Thursday, with Sharon taking his rival to task for rebuffing American peace efforts on the eve of a visit by a senior U.S. emissary. Aides said only that the two met late Wednesday night to resolve their differences on policy and the timing of Likud Party primaries. The Yediot Ahronot daily and radio stations said Sharon complained about Netanyahu's dismissal of a U.S.-backed plan to give Palestinians full independence by 2005.

Cabinet Minister Tzahi Hanegbi on Thursday confirmed that Netanyahu had described the so-called roadmap for Mideast peace as "irrelevant" pending expected U.S. military action in Iraq.

Netanyahu's statement, made Wednesday, "is not surprising," Hanegbi told Israel Radio. "First the expected drama in Iraq has to come to a conclusion. Above all there must be a Palestinian partner. There needs to be substantial reform to the Palestinian Authority ."

Sharon himself has expressed serious reservations about the U.S.-backed plan, but has been more diplomatic than Netanyahu, saying Israel would study it carefully and present its response at the appropriate time.

Netanyahu, who will battle Sharon for the Likud leadership in primaries to be held within the next few weeks, was formally sworn in as foreign minister on Wednesday. He took up the portfolio made vacant by a walkout of ministers from the dovish Labor party in a row over funding of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip .

Sharon had hoped to keep his coalition government afloat even without Labor, but a key right-wing party, the National Union-Israel Beitenu, refused to join without sweeping changes in government policy. Sharon refused and, left without a majority, called elections for January.

National Union legislator Yuri Stern said the right expected Netanyahu to champion the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority and the breaking of Sharon's promise to President Bush to pay out tax revenues it holds in escrow for the Palestinians.

"Also (we expect Netanyahu) to explain to our friends in the United States that the whole idea, of creating in the foreseeable future a Palestinian state, is an existential threat to the state of Israel and no roadmap can lead to a good outcome," Stern told The Associated Press.

The U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, denying media reports to the contrary, said emissary David Satterfield would visit the region early next week as planned, to promote the roadmap. The plan has been endorsed by the United States, the United Nations , Russia and the European Union - the so-called Quartet of peacemakers.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Thursday that he has committed himself in advance to accept the plan, which is expected to be hammered into a final draft next month after Israel, the Palestinians and Arab states make their reservations known.

"There is a clear understanding between us and the Quartet that we have to implement it directly after it will be offered to us officially by the Quartet," he told reporters at his West Bank headquarters. "The Quartet committee is coming to meet in the coming days to decide on the road map."

Netanyahu said Tuesday that Arafat should be expelled from the Palestinian territories, preferably during a U.S. strike against Iraq.

Ephraim Halevy, who until recently headed Israel's Mossad spy agency, again linked the subjects. He was quoted by the Maariv daily as saying that both Arafat and Saddam Hussein would probably no longer be in power within a year. The comments were from an interview that was to run in full Friday.

PHOTO CAPTION

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walks in the Knesset, Israel's parliament in Jerusalem Nov. 6, 2002, prior to being voted in as Israel's foreign minister. Israel goes to general elections within 90 days.(AP Photo/David Silverman, Pool)