Acting chairman of Israel's Likud party Tzachi Hanegbi bolted Likud and joined Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new Kadima party in a surprise move on Wednesday, local newspaper Ha'aretz reported.

Hanegbi, who is also a cabinet minister without portfolio, said on Wednesday that it seemed illogical to him to "be in a place other than at the side of Ariel Sharon in the coming years," according to the report.

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon quit the center-right Likud party he helped co-found decades ago and formed a new centrist party named Kadima (Forward).

Sharon's new party has enlisted a dozen of Likud members and a new poll conducted by Ha'aretz on Tuesday showed that Kadima and Likud had gained strength while Labor had slipped after a deadly Palestinian suicide bomb attack that killed five Israelis in the northern city of Netanya on Monday.

Meanwhile, Hanegbi's defection to Kadima came amid widespread reports that the police were to ask court to put him on trial for alleged irregularities in appointments he made while serving as environment minister.

Israel has advanced general elections to March 28, 2006, in which three major parties, the center-right Likud, center-left Labor and Sharon's Kadima will compete.

Source: Xinhua