JERUSALEM, Aug. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his bid for ruling Likud party's leadership to replace current Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday.

    "The Likud today needs a leader who can unify the ranks, rehabilitate the ruins, and lead the Likud to victory, and who will then lead the state in the spirit of our principles, and I believe that I can do that," Netanyahu told a news conference.

    "Therefore, I today announce my candidacy for the leadership of the Likud, and for the premiership."

    Netanyahu, 55, served as Israeli prime minister during 1996-1999. He resigned as financial minister of Sharon's government right before Israel's Gaza pullout to show his protest against the government move.

    His announcement on Tuesday was a direct challenge to Prime Minister Sharon and could set in motion an eventual split in the Likud party, with Sharon bolting it and starting a splinter factionof his own.

    On Monday, the party's court paved the way for the Netanyahu announcement when it ruled that the Likud Central Committee would vote on Sept. 26 on a proposal to advance the party's leadership primaries, thereby effectively beginning the process of ousting Sharon as the party's head.

    The expected primaries vote represents the first time that any party has tried to oust a serving prime minister as its chairman.

    It also represents a significant defeat for Sharon, who tried hard to prevent the central committee from convening for this purpose, as early primaries will force him to make decisions about his political future long before he had planned to do so.

    Should the committee, as currently seems likely, adopt the proposal submitted by his opponents, the primaries will take place in late November, within 60 days of the committee's vote. Thus Sharon will have to decide by then whether to run against Netanyahu, who is currently leading in polls of party members, or quit the Likud and start a new party.

    Monday's decision is also liable to cause the Knesset (Israeli parliament) to dissolve shortly after its winter session begins in late October, as it will encourage the Labor Party to quit the coalition.

    Sharon's supporters responded to the decision by accusing Netanyahu and other Sharon opponents of wanting to oust the prime minister even at the price of sending the party into the opposition.

    They added that Sharon has not yet made any decisions about his political future.

    However, Sharon himself said in a Channel 10 TV interview that he would definitely run in the primaries, but would not agree to be Netanyahu's number two if he lost. Enditem