Israeli officials set an early parliamentary election for March 28 yesterday, a day after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rocked the nation's political system by quitting his rightist Likud to found a centrist party.

Lawmakers will put the final touches to a motion to dissolve Parliament and hold early elections and will approve it in three separate votes today, a parliamentary official said.

The election had been scheduled for November 2006, but President Moshe Katsav struck a deal with the Parliament speaker and attorney general yesterday to bring it forward because of the crisis triggered by Mr Sharon's political thunderbolt.

In a move that could reshape Israeli politics for years to come, Mr Sharon quit the party he co-founded three decades ago, saying he could not push for peace with the Palestinians while "wasting time" battling far-right rivals in Likud.

Opinion polls showed the biggest gamble of Mr Sharon's long political career could pay off, giving his new - and so far unnamed - party 30-33 seats in the 120-member Parliament, enough to virtually assure him a third term.

Polls in three newspapers - Yedioth Ahronoth, Haaretz and Maariv - put Likud a distant third, with 12 to 15 seats, behind the centre-left Labour party under its fiery new leader, Amir Peretz, with 25 to 26 seats. But the initial enthusiasm for Mr Sharon's breakaway could cool, according to a commentary accompanying the Haaretz poll.

New parties have historically fared poorly in Israel, and Mr Sharon faces stiff opposition from the frontrunner to succeed him as Likud leader, hardliner Benjamin Netanyahu.

Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom also plan to stand in a Likud primary in mid-December.