Mr Ariel Sharon is maintaining a strong lead over Prime Minister Ehud Barak in opinion polls 24 hours before Israelis elect a new prime minister.
But a Palestinian leader said there would be no point in Middle East peace talks if Mr Sharon won.
"I do not believe that Palestinians have to contact Sharon or to negotiate with him," said Mr Marwan Barghouthi, a leader of the mainstream Fatah movement in the West Bank.
"The best way to deal with Sharon, the only way to deal with Sharon is the Intifada and the resistance," he said.
In a Gallup poll published in the Maarivnewspaper today Mr Sharon leads Mr Barak 55 per cent to 36 per cent. He increased his lead over the incumbent by 2 per cent since the last survey on Friday.
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Of the 1,770 people questioned yesterday, 10 per cent said they would either not vote or would slip a blank ballot into the box, thus rejecting both candidates. The survey's margin of error is 2.3 per cent
In a Dahaf Institute survey published in the Yedioth Ahronothnewspaper Mr Barak narrowed the gap by 3 per cent from a poll on Friday. But Mr Sharon still trounced the Israeli leader 56 per cent to 38 per cent, with 6 per cent undecided.
Dahaf polled Israelis yesterday but did not say how many people were questioned or what was the margin of error.
Hoping to narrow the gap Mr Barak focused his campaign on traditional left-wing voters, Israeli Arabs and Russian immigrants in the countdown to the prime ministerial election.
Reuters