A public opinion poll released on Monday showed that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new Kadima party will gain as many as 41 seats in the 120-seat Knesset ( parliament) if the general elections are held immediately.

The poll conducted by local newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth showed that the centrist Kadima, founded by Sharon in late November, gained two more seats from a similar survey published last Friday.

The center-left Labor and the center-right Likud both lost two seats according to the poll, which saw Labor winning 21 seats and the Likud 11.

Before the split of the Likud, the party held 40 seats in the Knesset.

The poll was taken after Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz announced on Sunday that he was leaving the Likud and joining Kadima.

Asked if the Likud was "heading for the extreme right", 50 percent of the respondents said yes, and 45 percent no.

Sharon quit the Likud he confounded some 30 years ago last month, over disputes with Likud rightists who are still bitter at Sharon's disengagement plan, under which Israel completed its withdrawal of soldiers and some 8,500 settlers from all Gaza and part of the West Bank in mid-September.

Sharon brought with him a handful of veteran Likud members and also enlisted support from Shimon Peres, who was ousted from the Labor party leadership by trade unionist Amir Peretz in November's party primaries.

The general elections were advanced from the original date in November 2006 to March 28, 2006, after Peretz broke up with the coalition government by taking the Labor away.

Source: Xinhua