Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will be questioned by police tomorrow in connection with a bribery scandal over which he might eventually face indictment himself, police sources said today.
A businessman friend was charged last month with trying to bribe Mr Sharon in the 1990s and prosecutors have said they should decide within months whether to indict the prime minister too - a move many analysts believe would force him from office.
Police sources said Mr Sharon would be questioned about the so-called "Greek Island Affair" but gave no further details. The prime minister's office did not comment.
Mr Sharon (75) has denied any wrongdoing in a string of corruption scandals that have failed to dent popularity he has won for tough measures to break a three-year-old Palestinian uprising.
The former general has rejected opposition calls to resign over the affair and vowed to stay in office at least until the next election in 2007.
He has also dismissed suggestions by some critics that his shock announcement this week of a plan to evacuate Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip was an attempt to draw attention from the investigation.
Police questioned Mr Sharon for seven hours last October over the scandal, for which a prominent property developer and stalwart of the prime-minister's ruling Likud party was charged last month.