Tel Aviv - Israel's left-to-centre Labour Party announced the results Friday morning of internal primaries, three months ahead of the Israeli parliamentary elections in which polls predict it is to lose much of its support.

Labour Party lawmakers Yitzhak Herzog and Ophir Paz Pines were chosen as number two and three on the party's list, after Defence Minister Ehud Barak, whose place as number one had already been determined in a separate June 2007 contest for the party's chairman.

The party's previous leader, former defence minister Amir Peretz, came in relatively low as number 10, making his seat in Israel's next Knesset (parliament) uncertain.

Opinion polls predict that the Labour Party, which for years had been Israel's largest movement leading many governments, will suffer a harsh blow in the February 10 elections and for the first time in Israeli history become a relatively marginalized faction.

Polls published last month indicated it could get just 8-10 mandates in the 120-seat Knesset, about half its current number of 19.

A defiant Barak nevertheless told party members and activists Friday morning that Labour had a "winning team."

"When you look to your right and to your left, with all the hitchhikers you see in Kadima and the Likud, the Labour Party has the best team," he said in remarks broadcast live on Israel Radio.

His remark hinted that high-profile public figures were joining Kadima and the Likud for opportunistic reasons. The centrist ruling party and the hardline opposition party are leading in opinion polls, running a neck-to-neck race.

"The party which continues the paths of (former premiers David) Ben Gurion, (Levy) Eshkol and (Yitzhak) Rabin," Barak insisted, had the "best record" and largest number of experienced lawmakers and politicians.

"If that is in store for us, we will lead the Opposition of the State of Israel with strength and determination," he vowed, but added he was entering the elections with the aim of leading the country's political centre.

The 66-year-old former premier and army chief of staff conceded that he had been told he comes across as "not sympathetic," "not trendy" and "not caring," but added running a state was "not a game."

"Together we will win," he said. (dpa)