Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, left hospital today saying he is in a hurry to get back to work after suffering a mild stroke on Sunday evening.

The 77-year-old politician, who has weight problems, said he was fit enough to go straight back to the office. Aides said that they had not yet discussed with him his doctors’ orders to go on a diet.

Sharon returned to the fray a few hours after his rival, Binyamin Netanyahu, won the race to replace him as head of the right wing Likud Party. Sharon quit Likud last month because party hardliners resisted his plans for a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Sharon’s illness raised questions about his ability to lead his new party, Kadima, into March elections, and then lead the country if elected to a third term. Today, the prime minister shrugged off those concerns.

"Now I have to rush back to work," he told reporters as he left Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital. Asked if the stroke affected his performance, Sharon replied, "I don’t think it will affect my functioning."

Doctors at Hadassah said that the stroke briefly affected his speech, but didn’t impair his memory or cognitive abilities, or leave permanent damage.

Shlomo Mor-Yosef said there were no important restrictions on Sharon’s activities. "He obviously could lose some weight, like many people," said Mor-Yosef. "He should scale back his activities. We recommend that he gradually resume his regular schedule over the next few days."

Doctors have been advising Sharon to lose weight since 1965.

Asaf Shariv, his spokesman, said that aides hadn’t broached the subject of dieting with Sharon during his hospital stay, and that the prime minister hadn’t brought it up, either.

New polls today showed Sharon, Israel’s most popular politician, gaining ground, with Likud still languishing. If poll trends hold, Kadima would be able to form a moderate coalition after the March general election, and a Netanyahu-led Likud would head a right-wing opposition.

Meanwhile there was unrest in Bethlehem today, where about two dozen gunmen briefly seized Bethlehem’s city hall on Manger Square and near the Church of the Nativity, demanding jobs in the Palestinian security forces.

Hundreds of Palestinian police and onlookers rushed to Manger Square after the gunmen appeared on the roof of city hall, pointing their weapons toward the crowd. Police sealed the streets leading to Manger Square.

After about an hour, the gunmen, who have ties to the ruling Fatah movement, met with the governor of the West Bank town and then walked out of the building. It was not immediately clear how the standoff was resolved.

The Church of the Nativity, one of Christianity’s holiest shrines, stands over the grotto where tradition says Jesus was born.

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