JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party swept to victory in Israel's general election Tuesday, according to television polls, paving the way for him to form a coalition government and press on with his tough line against a Palestinian uprising.

But he could face weeks of political wrangling to put together a stable coalition in a fragmented parliament.
Television polls after voting ended showed Likud winning 32 to 36 seats in the 120-seat Knesset and the center-left Labor 17 to 19 seats, a dramatic decline for the party that once dominated Israeli politics and blazed the trail of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

The centrist secular party Shinui (Change) surged into third place, with a projected 14 to 17 seats, potentially gaining the "kingmaker" role historically held by ultra-Orthodox Jewish politicians.

Two hours before polls closed, election officials said turnout among the 4.7 million registered voters was one of the lowest in Israel's history. Unofficial near-final results were due early Wednesday.
President Moshe Katzav is now expected to ask Sharon, as the leader of the biggest party in parliament, to form a new government to tackle a deep economic crisis and the 28-month-old Palestinian uprising for an independent state.

The future of peacemaking with the Palestinians will be shaped largely by which parties the 74-year-old former general can lure into a coalition with him.

Sharon will have 28 days to form a government, but he can be given up to 14 more days if, as expected, he finds it difficult to build a coalition. If Sharon fails, Katzav will ask another party leader to form a government.

Although Sharon has not brought the peace and security he promised when elected in February 2001 -- and few expect him to do so now -- he flaunted his credentials as a veteran general and experienced politician to convince Israelis he was the best person to lead them through such troubled times.

"Instead of peace and security, the sales pitch is 'The people want Sharon,"' said Yoel Marcus, a prominent columnist with the liberal Ha'aretz newspaper.

Sharon has said painful concessions are needed to make peace, but in his election campaign offered no new ideas for ending a conflict in which more than 1,800 Palestinians and almost 700 Israelis have been killed since September 2000.

Troops killed four Palestinians, including three gunmen, in the West Bank on election day, and an explosion at a militant's house killed three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites).

The Palestinians, who are resisting nearly 36 years of Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, said Sharon's re-election would bring more hardship.

"Sharon winning will only mean more destruction, more of our blood," said Raed Qalaja, a taxi driver in Gaza City.

DAUNTING CHALLENGE

Sharon faces a daunting challenge trying to forge a stable coalition among rival parties that reflect not only divisions between the right and left wings but the growing secular-versus-religious divide in Israeli society.

Sharon has said he hopes to lure Labor, led by dovish Amram Mitzna, into a broad coalition.

"The public is saying clearly today that it supports the prime minister and his policies ... along with the message that it is tired of elections every two years -- and that's why we need a broad coalition," Likud Cabinet minister Limor Livnat told Israel's Channel One minutes before polls closed.

But Labor, which triggered the election by bolting Sharon's coalition in October, said before the ballot it would not join a Likud-led government.

If Labor does not change its mind, and Shinui leader Yosef "Tommy" Lapid sticks to a vow not to join any government with religious parties, Sharon could be forced into a coalition with only right-wing, ultra-Orthodox and ultra-nationalist parties.

Such a partnership could harden Israeli government policy toward the Palestinians and put Sharon at odds with his country's main ally, the United States, over issues such as building Jewish settlements on occupied land in the West Bank, as Washington prepares for possible war with Iraq.

Israel's financial markets, battered by more than two years of bloodshed and a global slowdown, would prefer to see a secular unity government led by Likud, Labor and Shinui to address urgent budget cuts and economic reform.

Voting took place under a cloak of heavy security. About 30,000 police officers and soldiers were deployed at polling stations and public places across the country following warnings that Palestinian militants were planning election day attacks.

Palestinians spent the day under a blanket travel ban imposed by the army in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a measure they condemned as collective punishment.

Israelis voiced weariness. Many predicted Sharon would be unable to form a government that would hold together for long.

"I'm not voting because anyway in another two years we'll have elections again," said Arieh Geiger, a young Israeli.

Mitzna, 57, mayor of Haifa and a decorated former general, failed to generate support for his more conciliatory approach to the Palestinian uprising, advocating immediate peace talks and unilateral Israeli pullbacks from Palestinian areas if fresh negotiations failed.

Labor was divided by his policies, and his position could be in jeopardy after the election.

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