Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon has opened a commanding lead over his foreign minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, in the race to head the Likud party in the coming election, an opinion poll shows.
The survey in the mass circulation
Maariv
daily said 48 per cent of Likud voters would cast their ballots for Mr Sharon in the party's primary election, for which no date has yet been set, compared with 38 per cent for Mr Netanyahu.
The national ballot, expected to be held in January, is likely to delay Middle East peacemaking and deepen regional uncertainty ahead of a possible US war on Iraq.
An opinion poll in the English-language Jerusalem Post, which has a far smaller readership than Maariv, found Mr Sharon and Mr Netanyahu running neck-and-neck among Likud members, as in previous surveys.
Mr Sharon (74) had calculated that bringing Mr Netanyahu (53) into his team could both curb his rival's criticism of him before the Likud primary and give Israel an defender abroad of the tough government line on a Palestinian uprising for statehood.
But Mr Netanyahu, prime minister from 1996 to 1999, has already condemned Mr Sharon on issues of security, and Israel's recession-hit economy that are likely to dominate the election campaign.
The Maarivpoll said 76 per cent of Israelis were dissatisfied with Mr Sharon's handling of economic and social welfare issues.
Mr Sharon opted for a national ballot nine months early after his main coalition partner, the centre-left Labour Party, left his 20-month-old government in a dispute over funding for Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian lands.
An opinion poll in Israel's biggest newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, showed Likud crushing Labour in the general election, regardless of who Labour or Likud chooses as its leader in November 19th primaries.