MIDDLE EAST:Both contenders in the second round run-off for the leadership of Israel's Labor Party have threatened to pull out of the government.
However, the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, can rest easy for now, knowing that neither former prime minister Ehud Barak nor Labor lawmaker Ami Ayalon is likely to be in a rush to make good on their threats.
Opinion polls in advance of today's vote indicated that the race was too close to call. But the most recent poll, published last night by Channel 10 news, showed Mr Barak with a healthy 46-39 lead over Mr Ayalon.
A former navy chief and head of the internal security service, Mr Ayalon has run on a ticket of "clean politics" and has emphasised opinion polls showing that under his leadership the centre-left Labor Party would win more seats in a general election.
Mr Barak has emphasised his experience - he held the positions of army chief, minister of foreign affairs and defence minister, before becoming prime minister - and has tried to convince the party faithful that he is aware of the mistakes he made during his first term.
Mr Barak is on the comeback trail after his term ended ignominiously in 2001, when peace talks he was conducting with Yasser Arafat collapsed and the second Palestinian uprising erupted.
Mr Ayalon, who came second to Mr Barak in the first round of voting on May 28th, has secured the backing of outgoing party leader and defence minister Amir Peretz, who came in third in the first round. It is unclear, though, how many party members who voted for Mr Peretz will heed his call to back his new political ally.
Mr Barak has the support of most of the senior Labor ministers and pollsters predicted he would garner most of the floating vote.
Despite their pledge to end Labor's role in the government if Mr Olmert doesn't resign - over a commission of inquiry last month that severely criticised his handling of the war in Lebanon - neither man will be in a hurry to lead Labor out of government.
Many of the 103,000 Labor members fear that if they opt out of the ruling coalition, they will find themselves languishing on the opposition benches as opinion polls consistently predict that if a national election were held, the centre-right Likud party would win easily.