The Knesset parliamentary finance committee on Sunday delayed indefinitely a vote on the contentious 2005 state budget until a majority can be found.
The panel was slated to vote on Sunday and then send the bill to the full plenum for a vote on Thursday.
A spokesman for Finance Committee Chairman Yakov Litzman, noted no new date has been set as of yet.
"There is no vote because there is no majority," he said . "Prime Minister Ariel Sharon doesn't even know when."
The 264.5 billion shekel ($62 billion) spending package must receive final parliamentary approval by the end of March or the government is dissolved and general elections are automatically triggered.
Sharon has been courting opposition parties for support since about a dozen "rebels" in his Likud party vowed to vote against the budget in protest of the pullout plan from the Gaza Strip.
New elections?
Failure to pass the budget would likely derail Sharon's plan to start evacuating all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and 4 of 120 in the West Bank this summer.
If the finance committee eventually approves the budget, the full parliament will start debate on the bill three days later.
Government sources believe the budget saga will go down to the wire, with a full plenum vote likely on March 31 -- after Sharon either convinces the rebels or opposition parties to support the budget.
Opposition parties have asked for hefty monetary sums in budget promises in exchange for their support.