TEL AVIV, April 28: An interim legal report has found Israeli prosecutors lack enough evidence to charge Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a bribery scandal that has threatened to topple him, a television station said on Wednesday.

The news will give Mr Sharon a welcome boost as he heads towards a neck-and-neck referendum of his right-wing Likud party on Sunday on a Gaza Strip pullout plan that has shaken Middle East peacemaking to the core. Israel's chief prosecutor has officially recommended bringing charges against Mr Sharon in the bribery case.

But Channel Two television said an advisory team set up by Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz had gone over the prosecutor's draft repeatedly and decided there was insufficient evidence.

"They all reached the conclusion that the case stinks, but you don't win in court based on bad feelings," the television said, adding the findings would be presented to Mazuz next week.

A Justice Ministry spokesman said no decision had been made yet. Sources close to the investigation said there were still a lot of consultations to come. Mr Sharon's office declined immediate comment. "It's all speculation. We'll have to wait and see," said one senior political source.

The case centres on payments of hundreds of thousands of dollars that an Israeli land developer and Likud stalwart made to Mr Sharon's son Gilad, whom he hired in the late 1990s as an adviser on a never-completed project to build a Greek resort.

A focus for prosectors was whether Mr Sharon, foreign minister at the time, tried to help win Greek government approval for the enterprise, promoted by Likud kingmaker David Appel, now on trial on related bribery charges. -Reuters