The Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Ariel Sharon's leadership had left Israel in dire straits.
Netanyahu, a right-wing former prime minister, became Sharon's subordinate on Wednesday when he took up the Foreign Ministry post, ending three years in the political wilderness.
But his plans to challenge Sharon for the leadership of their right-wing Likud party and reclaim the prime minister's office in Israel's coming election heralded weeks of sniping between the two men and paralysis in Middle East peacemaking.
His leadership challenge could also have an impact on U.S. efforts to win Arab support for possible war against Iraq. Speaking in an interview published on Thursday, he said
"I am running (for the Likud leadership) because the country is in dire straits and we have to get it out," Netanyahu, 53, told The Jerusalem Post.
Asked if he thought Sharon was leaving the country in worse shape than when he was elected nearly two years ago, Netanyahu said: "I think one of the things that we see is the tremendous escalation of (Palestinian) terror."
Dozens of suicide bombings have rocked Israel despite Sharon's pledge in the previous election campaign to stop the two-year Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
Netanyahu's appointment has sparked fears on the left that Sharon's rightist caretaker government may step up the crackdown on the Palestinians at a time when Washington wants calm while it seeks Arab support over Iraq.