Quick facts: Ariel Sharon

Ariel Sharon

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was hospitalised in Jerusalem with a massive brain haemorrhage and underwent an operation, the hospital chief said.

Here are key facts about Sharon:

* Sharon, 77, a former general often nicknamed "the Bulldozer", has been prime minister since 2001, guiding Israel through a five-year Palestinian uprising.

* Sharon drew Arab enmity for masterminding the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, during which Christian militia allies massacred Palestinians in two refugee camps, and later for his crushing response to a Palestinian uprising that erupted after he visited a sensitive Jerusalem shrine in 2000.

* He won international accolades for ending 38 years of Israeli military rule in Gaza, though he has vowed never to relinquish much larger settlements in the occupied West Bank.

* Once the Gaza pullout was complete, Sharon opted to break away from Likud to form the Kadima Party, saying he no longer wanted to have his hands tied in pursuing his diplomatic strategy for ending conflict with the Palestinians.

* Opinion polls after Sharon suffered a mild stroke last month continued to show him the clear favourite to win a March election as head of a new centrist party he set up after he quit his rightist Likud movement.

- REUTERS