Sharon Announces Early Israeli Elections

Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, said today that he wants to bring forward the country's general elections to February next year.

Mr Sharon had previously opposed early elections, but announced his change of mind in an interview in the daily Yediot Ahronot newspaper.

He has been forced to change his position after the newly-elected Labour leader, Amir Peretz, pledged to take his party out of Mr Sharon's coalition and bring down the government.

Mr Sharon and Mr Peretz met this morning to discuss the elections and the Labour leader said he had told the prime minister he should hold the poll by the end of March.

"I'm letting him choose a date in that period between the end of February and the end of March and whatever date he chooses is acceptable to me, the earlier the better," Mr Peretz said after the talks.

Elections must be held by November 2006, so a February poll would bring them forward by nine months.

Mr Sharon told Yediot Ahronot: "If possible we shall go to the people in February ... the moment it became clear to me that the existing political structure was breaking up I reached the conclusion that the best thing for the country is to have elections as quickly as possible."

Mr Sharon did not speak to the media after this morning's meeting but a spokesman said that a decision on the election date would be made by Monday. This is when the Israeli parliament is scheduled to hold a preliminary vote on a bill to dissolve parliament.

Mr Peretz won a surprise victory last week in a Labour leadership vote, toppling Shimon Peres after pledging to pull Labour out of the Likud-led coalition. The party is the second largest in the coalition.

Opinion polls in last week's Israeli press showed Mr Peretz's dramatic political upset in becoming Labour leader has significantly improved the party's election prospects, but not by enough to unseat Mr Sharon.

However, the polls did not take into account what would happen if Mr Sharon lost the leadership of Likud and created a new party for the election. Surveys taken before the Labour shake-up showed Mr Sharon at the head of the single largest party, whether Likud or a new one.

Mr Peretz has said that he is hoping to capitalise on the feud within Likud prompted by this summer's withdrawal of Jewish settlers from Gaza.

Early elections, combined with Palestinian elections scheduled for January, will almost certainly freeze all efforts to restart Middle East peace talks.

International mediators had hoped to build on the momentum from Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip to kickstart a new round of negotiations following five years of violence between the two sides.