But commentators gave warning that the new party’s lead, which would translate into between 30 and 33 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, could evaporate in the four-month run-up to the poll, once the excitement generated by the Prime Minister’s seismic shift in Israel’s fickle political scene begins to fade.

Yesterday Mr Sharon was talking to other Knesset members, hoping to persuade them to join his new party, which has yet to be named after the initial "National Responsibility" tag was vetoed.

Legislators in a Knesset committee were preparing a Bill to dissolve the 16th Knesset which could get its second and third readings as early as today, paving the way for the election likely to be held on March 28.

Advisers and political confidants expanded on the vision Mr Sharon outlined when he explained why he decided to abandon the now "insufferable" party that he helped to found more than three decades ago.

Ehud Olmert, the Deputy Prime Minister, who is to join the new party, said: "We are talking about a desire to define the permanent borders of Israel in the framework of an agreement [with the Palestinians] based on the road map."

But Eyal Arad, a strategic adviser to Mr Sharon, said that the Prime Minister had undergone a sea change in the past 12 months and had come to the conclusion that trading land for peace would not bring an end to the conflict with the Palestinians.

Instead, Mr Sharon hoped to end the strife by promising the Palestinians the independence of a national home if they could guarantee peace for Israeli citizens who suffered through five years of the intifada. "Israel’s control over the whole land of Israel was a basic tenet of the Likud identity," Mr Eyal said.

"Clinging to the vision of a ‘greater Israel’ was what differentiated it from other parties. What you see today [Mr Sharon’s split] is a logical extension of that."

The Prime Minister’s departure, along with a number of senior Likud ministers, appeared on early showings destined to consign Likud to also-rans, consistently predicted by polls yesterday to pick up only 12 to 15 seats.

A rejuvenated Labour party, which last week cast out its veteran leader Shimon Perez in favour of the outspoken Amir Peretz, could win 26 seats. That would give Mr Sharon the chance to form a strong coalition with the secular Shinui party and the leftist Meretz-Yahad.

But now Mr Sharon, who will continue to serve as caretaker Prime Minister once parliament has been dissolved, must quickly build an electoral machine.

With 14 defecting Likud Knesset members onboard, a third of the party’s parliamentary strength, the new party will be eligible for an initial advance of £1.2 million election funding from the State. Other cash would follow.

The current standing of the new party will also win it 52 minutes on television and 109 hours on radio for party political broadcasts during the 21 days ahead of the poll, similar to Labour but half that available to Likud. Televised party political advertisements are banned in Israel.

Yet analysts believe that despite the lack of time to build a comprehensive party machine, the framework of Israeli electoral politics and the voting system are likely to count little against Mr Sharon, whose continuing role as Prime Minister will keep him in the spotlight.

Electors cast their ballots only for parties and not for individuals, with seats allocated to each on a proportion of the national votes won.

The result is that voters will be voting for "the Ariel Sharon party", as one analyst put it, and his policies.

STATE OF THE PARTIES

Predicted share of seats in 120-member Knesset

SHARON 33
LABOUR 26
LIKUD 12

Source: Yediot Ahronot

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