Israel's veteran statesman Shimon Peres is likely to leave the Labour Party and join Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new centrist list, according to Israeli radio reports today.
Israel Radio, quoting senior party sources, said Mr Peres (82) - a Nobel peace laureate - was leaning toward leaving the party he once led.
He is expected to make an announcement once he returns later this week from a conference of Mediterranean nations in Barcelona.
Mr Sharon, who has redrawn Israel's political map by quitting his rightist Likud party to leave him freer to make peace moves with the Palestinians, has offered Mr Peres the job of peace envoy if he wins a March 28th national poll, reports said.
A Sharon associate has confirmed that leaders of his party, Kadima, have been in touch with Mr Peres about the possibility of him joining its ranks, but that Mr Peres had not yet said whether he would join.
"The decision for me is very difficult, it is so tied up with historic and other considerations. It will take me another day or two to decide," Mr Peres told reporters yesterday.
He was also quoted as telling confidants "they don't want me in Labour". He was ousted as party leader in a November 9th poll by fiery trade union leader Amir Peretz and had not indicated since then how he would proceed politically.
Michael Bar-Zohar, an Israeli biographer of both Mr Peres and his mentor, Israel's founding father David Ben-Gurion, told the radio he thought Mr Peres would leave, but that the veteran Israeli figure had not yet made up his mind.