With giant pictures of Ariel Sharon as a backdrop, Ehud Olmert finally drew the spotlight as the interim prime minister celebrated victory in Israel?s general election.

Ehud, King of Israel! activists chanted at his Kadima party?s election headquarters yesterday, echoing a popular chant that had greeted Sharon at the high points of a decades-long political career.

Sharon, Israel?s prime minister since 2001, suffered a stroke in January and has been in a coma since.

He founded Kadima in November after bolting the right-wing Likud party in the face of an internal revolt over a Gaza pullout last year that he championed in a sharp reversal of policy.

Olmert, a veteran politician who served in Sharon?s shadow as his deputy, followed him to Kadima and took over as the country?s interim leader after he fell ill.

Beaming at a sea of supporters, some flying party flags and tossing white balloons, Olmert, 60, thanked his hospitalized mentor.

?At this time I lift up my eyes and heart to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, to the man who started it all, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,? he said to cheers.

Israeli television stations cut away abruptly from live coverage of Labour Party chief Amir Peretz speaking at his group?s headquarters to broadcast Olmert?s speech from Neve Ilan, near Jerusalem.

?Just before he should have seen his vision come true, his body failed him,? Olmert said about Sharon and his plan to ?disengage? from conflict with the Palestinians through what the former general had described as ?painful concessions.?

Olmert pledged in his speech to withdraw from parts of the West Bank, uprooting some settlements while strengthening others, and set a border unilaterally if peacemaking with the Palestinians remains frozen.Palestinians say such moves would deny them a viable state on territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Olmert arrived at the victory celebration after visiting Jerusalem?s Western Wall, Judaism?s holiest shrine, where he placed a note of prayer in the cracks of its ancient walls.

Sharon and winners of previous Israeli elections had made the same pilgrimage.

Arabs see little change from Israeli election

Nearly complete official results showed Kadima with about 29 seats in the 120-member parliament, putting it in position to form a governing coalition with other parties. Pre-election opinion polls had once predicted Kadima would take 44 seats.

?(Sharon) probably would have said, ?We could have done better, but let?s get to work,? said Raanan Gissin, an Olmert aide who served as an adviser to Sharon.

Arab leaders said yesterday they expected little change after Israeli elections in which interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert claimed victory on a plan to annexe parts of the occupied West Bank and impose a border on the Palestinians. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the election result would make no difference unless Olmert changed his policies.

?This result will not change (anything) as long as the agenda of Olmert himself does not change and he does not abandon the question of ?unilateral agreements?,? Abbas told reporters in Khartoum, where he is attending the annual Arab summit. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said: ?It?s not comprehensible leaving the issue of Jerusalem or accepting unilateral withdrawals according to Israeli whims. This will not work but will only lead to worsening matters more and more.?

?It is impossible to accept Israeli proposals that we have seen so far. Is there anything new the new Israeli government can come up with? Many Arabs don?t think so, so the Arab world has to look at all the possibilities,? he added.

In his election campaign Olmert pledged to pursue a plan to retain parts of the occupied West Bank holding large settlement blocs, give up other areas and impose a border unilaterally on the Palestinians. The Arab summit, which ended yesterday, renewed an Arab offer of peace with Israel in exchange for withdrawal from territory occupied since the 1967 Middle East war. Israel has in the past rejected the offer. The summit also opposed unilateral steps by Israel, calling for a return to the multilateral peace negotiations under international supervision.

IN THE LIMELIGHT

Israel election gives boost to smaller parties

■ With champagne and harmonica music, Israeli pensioners celebrated their new party?s surprise election showing ? until their 79-year-old leader said it was time to go to bed. In a shock to Israel?s long-dominant establishment parties, voters in Tuesday?s election put Gil, which stands for ?Pensioners for You,? the far-right Yisrael Beitenu and other little-known groups on the political map. Political analysts attributed the shift to growing public disaffection with the major parties and low voter turnout. ?No doubt the Likud has suffered a tough blow,? said former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose right-wing party that dominated Israel for decades was projected to get only about 12 seats in the 120-member parliament.

Netanyahu said he did the best he could with a party left devastated by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon?s decision to bolt Likud to form centrist Kadima. Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who took the helm of Kadima after Sharon suffered a massive stroke in January, claimed victory yesterday, but his party won by a much narrower margin than expected.

Supporters chanted «Ehud, Ehud» after Olmert declared victory, then headed off home. ?He (Sharon) probably would have said we could have done better, but let?s get to work,? said one Olmert aide.

In a first for a party championing the rights of the elderly, Gil was tipped by exit polls to take 8-10 seats in parliament and has big plans for the future. ?We may join a coalition government led by Kadima, if our needs, such as medical cost reductions and guaranteed pensions, are met,? said Hefseiva Ben-Nun, a 66-year-old former teacher and Gil party leader.

The most successful of the surprise winners on the night appeared to be Moldovan-born ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman. His Yisrael Beitenu was projected to take 13 to 14 seats, putting it ahead of Likud. Lieberman?s campaign was especially popular among Russian speakers, employing catchy slogans like: «Olmert: Nyet, Netanyahu: Nyet, Lieberman: Da».

David Iosphe, who moved to Israel from Ukraine in 1978, said he liked Lieberman?s straight talk and dismissed Netanyahu and Olmert as ?career politicians?.

«Lieberman is the only person who knows what our country needs,» the 68-year-old said at Yisrael Beitenu?s post-election party in Jerusalem. The mood was sombre at Likud?s headquarters.

Party members milled about inside a giant convention centre with only a few dozen supporters on hand. Members of centre-left Labour said they were happy with the party?s showing in second place, because it would give them clout to influence policy ? but Labour?s showing appeared little better than in the last general election in 2003.

When word spread of Gil?s electoral gains, one elderly man at its headquarters in Tel Aviv whipped out his harmonica and danced a slow post-election jig.

But before long, Gil leader Rafael Eitan, famed in Israel for capturing Nazi fugitive Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in 1960 and later for masterminding an Israeli spying operation in the United States that caused a crisis with Washington, called it a night.

?In recent days we have been working around the clock. There comes a point where you have to go home for a rest,? 79-year-old Eitan said.