Netanyahu launches bid to oust Sharon

"I am announcing my candidacy today," Netanyahu told a press conference in the commercial capital Tel Aviv.

"I intend to lead us to victory in the upcoming elections and to establish the next government in the spirit of Likud."

The much-anticipated decision comes after a blistering personal attack by Sharon who called Netanyahu unfit to lead the country.

The 55-year-old Netanyahu, 22 years younger than Sharon, served as prime minister from 1996 to 1999 before a crushing general election defeat at the hands of the centre-left Labour party.

Netanyahu has managed to rebuild his reputation as finance minister under Sharon's cabinet but he quit on August 7 in protest at the plan to pull settlers out of the Gaza Strip and four small West Bank enclaves, which was completed a week ago.

Likud's central committee is due to meet on September 25 where it is expected to set a November 22 date to hold a leadership primary vote.

While Sharon's historic Gaza pullout has enjoyed a majority of support among the Israeli public as a whole, he has been unable to win over the bulk of Likud members who rejected the project in a referendum last year.

And even though he insists he has no more pullouts up his sleeve, Sharon risked further alienating his former allies on the right by acknowledging Monday that Israel would not keep hold of all of its remaining settlements in the West Bank in a final status agreement with the Palestinians.

Opinion polls among Likud members have given mixed results with some showing that Netanyahu should easily defeat Sharon.

The ill-concealed animosity between the two men has bubbled over since Netanyahu's resignation from the cabinet, with Sharon savaging his arch-rival in a television interview late Monday.