Contenders To Lead Israel After Feb. 10 Election

Following are leading contenders to replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is stepping down over a corruption inquiry:

Israel's leaders, who face an election on Feb. 10, will probably benefit from the three-week military campaign in Gaza that has devastated the Hamas-controlled territory but caused relatively few Israeli casualties.

Most likely to benefit is Defence Minister Ehud Barak, head of the left-leaning Labour party, although in opinion polls he still trails Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of the centrist Kadima and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud.

Following are leading contenders to replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is stepping down over a corruption inquiry:

* BENJAMIN NETANYAHU. Netanyahu, who threw his support behind Israel's Gaza offensive, has maintained a narrow lead in opinion polls. Prime minister from 1996 to 1999 and leader of the opposition Likud party since Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Olmert and others defected to Kadima. Educated in the United States, he became a decorated commando. As finance minister under Sharon from 2003, Netanyahu, 59, pursued economic reforms that are credited by many for economic growth.

* TZIPI LIVNI. Foreign minister and leader of the ruling Kadima party, Livni is a close second in polls. The most powerful woman in Israel since Prime Minister Golda Meir in the 1970s, Livni, 50, has spearheaded efforts to secure a diplomatic arrangement that would satisfy Israel's conditions for a ceasefire. She called on Olmert to quit after a scathing report on Israel's 2006 war in Lebanon. He did not. Nor did she. However, Olmert later resigned in a graft scandal and Livni was chosen as his successor in a September ballot. The daughter of a prominent right-wing Zionist, she is a former intelligence agent and has been Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians.

* EHUD BARAK. Defence Minister who leads the Labour party, Kadima's main coalition ally. Barak's management of the Gaza offensive has won wide public support in Israel, especially after a perceived mishandling of Israel's war against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Opinion polls show support for his Labour party has increased since Israel launched its offensive in the Gaza Strip on Dec. 27. A much-decorated commando, top general, and prime minister from 1999-2001, Barak is 66. His premiership ended in an unsuccessful attempt to achieve peace with Syria, and the start of a Palestinian uprising.