Deputies voted 85-27 to move the ballot forward from 2000 to 17 May 1999 with a second round of voting on 1 June if necessary.

The move comes after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu failed to win majority support for his peace policies.

The elections will take place around the time Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is proposing to declare a Palestinian state.

Almost all the members of the opposition as well as a large number of deputies from Mr Netanyahu's splintered seven-party coalition supported the early elections bill.

Mr Netanyahu's coalition crumbled over his handling of the Wye River peace accord signed in October, in which he promised to hand over another slice of the West Bank in return for tougher security measures against Palestinian extremists.

Likud members throw in their hats

The prime minister, who took office in 1996, and his hardline foreign minister Ariel Sharon did not take part in the vote.

Five other deputies in the 120-member Knesset were absent and one abstained.

The early-elections bill passed its first reading on 21 December.

In the following days, three members of Mr Netanyahu's Likud grouping broke away to announce they would challenge him for the prime ministership.