Tel Aviv  - The Likud, the hardline opposition party currently leading in opinion polls to win the February 10 Israeli election, announced the official results of its primary early Tuesday morning in Tel Aviv.

Likud caucus leader Gideon Sa'ar won the second spot on the party's list of parliamentary candidates, after hawkish former premier Benyamin Netanyahu, whose place as number one had already been secured in a separate contest for the party's leadership in late 2005.

An extreme-right activist, Moshe Feiglin, who Netanyahu had hoped would not make it to a ranking spot, came in at 20th place, giving him a good chance of making it into Israel's parliament, the Knesset.

Opinion polls published last month predict the Likud could win as many as 34 mandates in the 120-seat Knesset, and beat the centrist, ruling Kadima party of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, although the two are running a tight race.

Likud legislators Gilad Erdan and Reuven Rivlin made it to the third and fourth spot on the list, while former science minister Benni Begin, the son of late Israeli premier Menahem Begin, came in fifth.

Former foreign minister Silvan Shalom, considered another internal rival of Netanyahu's, secured the seventh spot.

Netanyahu had acted against ultra-nationalist Feiglin, of the "Jewish leadership" movement, entering parliament on behalf of the Likud, fearing a strong showing by him and his supporters will allow other parties to portray the Likud as ultra-right and would drive away potential centrist voters.

Feiglin has charged that the Likud has drifted leftward from its ideological roots. (dpa)