Netanyahu, declared victor in a leadership contest on December 20 to succeed Ariel Sharon as Likud leader, pushed back the elections from January 3 to January 9 to allow the party time to adopt new rules to prevent the radical, Moshe Geiglin, from standing, Likud sources said on Wednesday.
The new rules would ban anyone who has been handed a prison sentence of several months to be included on the list of candidates.
Feiglin, at the time a member of an extreme nationalist group, was sentenced in 1997 to nine months in prison for organizing violent demonstrations.
Likud leaders fear he is now trying to scupper Likud by sneaking in extreme right wingers, including some from the banned Kach group.
The Israeli press says Netanyahu is seeking to shed his image as an arch-hawk to win back centrist voters who back the new Kadima party of Prime Minister Sharon, who quit Likud a month ago.
© 2005 Agence France-Presse
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