About 45.5 percent of Israeli ruling Likud members supported a demand proposed by former Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to advance the party primaries to the end of November, according to a poll released on Thursday.

The poll, conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday for the Ha'aretz daily, is based on a sample of 510 Likud central committee members. The committee, which is entitled to choose Likud's party leader, is comprised of 3,050 members.

The move for earlier primaries could lead to Sharon's departure from the Likud. Some 40.3 percent of those surveyed supported Sharon's position to hold the primaries in April, the originally scheduled date.

The decision will be made on Monday by a secret ballot in the central committee.

According to the poll, support for early primaries is strongest among those between 18-34 and over 65.

Fifty-seven percent said they supported the party's remaining in power until the current government officially ends its term in November 2006, while 37 percent said they did not.

However, about 16 percent of those who wanted to see the government remain in office also supported moving up the primaries, which represents a contradiction, because moving up the primaries is likely to lead to Sharon's departure from the Likud and a party split, which would automatically weaken the coalition and result in early elections.

Sharon will have to make clear to those supporting both the government's staying in power and early primaries that they can not have both in order to win next week's ballot, said analysts.

Source: Xinhua