JERUSALEM, Dec. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Israel's Labor party chairman Amir Peretz said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's health will not become a political issue, local newspaper Ha'aretz said on its on-line edition.

    "I will not agree that the health of Israel's prime minister would turn into a political issue. This is a personal matter," Peretz told the party's convention in Jerusalem.

    However, the newly-elected Labor leader had few kind words for Sharon in his party address, enumerating the prime minister's shortcomings in handling growing social gaps.

    "The issue of public concern is not Sharon's health but the health of Israeli society," Peretz said.

    Sharon was released from Hadassah University Hospital on Tuesday after being hospitalized for a minor stroke on Sunday evening.

    The 77-year-old declared that the stroke would not have an impact on his work.

    Peretz, who served as Chairman of the Histadrut (labor federation) in the past 10 years, defeated veteran Labor chief Shimon Peres and became the new Labor leader on Nov. 9. He then withdrew the center-left party from Sharon's coalition government.

    In recent opinion polls, Labor came as the second after Sharon's newly-formed Kadima if the March 28 general elections were held now. The Likud, which Sharon bolted last month and now is headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, came a distant third. Enditem