Polls show Livni leading Netanyahu

Tzipi Livni has seen a sharp turnaround in fortunes for Israel's ruling Kadima party since she became leader last month and could beat the right-wing opposition in a coming election, polls yesterday indicated.

Two newspaper surveys published a day after Livni abandoned her efforts to forge a new coalition government and recommended to the president that he call a parliamentary election showed Kadima just beating Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud - a reversal of the results forecast in previous polls, published in August.

Livni's Kadima colleagues attributed the gains to her image as a new kind of corruption-free politician, though few appeared to relish going to polls with an untested leader so soon.