Eighty World Likud voters from around the world will convene at Ramat Gan's Kfar Hamaccabiah on Sunday to decide who will face off against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's candidate for the interim chairmanship of the Jewish Agency, Ra'anana Mayor Ze'ev Bielski.

Bielski decided to run as an independent, leaving the World Likud race to former ministers Natan Sharansky and Gideon Patt and Beersheba Likud activist Vladimir Herczberg.

The Zionist General Council will decide between Bielski and the World Likud's candidate in a secret ballot vote at the Jerusalem Regency Hotel later next week.

Sharansky said he does not see his run as a struggle against the government. He said he can cooperate with Sharon on issues like strengthening relations with Jews abroad and fighting anti-Semitism, despite their differences over disengagement.

"The Jewish Agency is an institution with issues that can unite people who are for and against disengagement," he said. "I heard Sharon doesn't want me because I oppose disengagement, but he never said that to me.

"He told me he wanted me to stay in the government because he liked the way I handled the same issues as Diaspora affairs minister. I hope that isn't his reason [for opposing me], because my opinion on disengagement shouldn't interfere with my work at the agency."

Sharansky, 57, stopped short of criticizing Sharon for bypassing the World Likud to try to advance Bielski's candidacy.

"In a democracy, you can try to change the laws, but you cannot bypass them or the institutions," he said. "I'm running in a democratic way and that's the way it should be."

Patt, 72, served as minister of tourism, construction and housing, industry and trade, and science and development in 16 years in the cabinet. He then served as president of Israel Bonds in New York for five and a half years. He ran for Jewish Agency chairman a decade ago but was narrowly defeated by the late Simcha Dinitz.

"I want to use the Jewish Agency to unite the Jewish people and advance Jewish education," Patt said. "Sharansky is talented and well-known, but my experience makes me the most fitting candidate. Sharansky is serious competition, but I think I can do a better job than him."

Herczberg, 58, is running in his fifth election since his aliya from the former Soviet union nine years ago. He ran for Likud chairman against Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert and Meir Sheetrit in 1999, against Dan Naveh and Gilad Erdan for the leadership of the Likud's ideological bureau in 2004 and against Ya'acov Turner for mayor of Beersheba in 1998 and 2003.

He said that he would be a good Jewish Agency chairman because he still has ties with key officials in the former Soviet union from his days as an aliya activist there.

"I don't know whether I can beat Sharansky, but I am sure that I would do a much better job than him," Herczberg said. "When Sharansky was sitting in jail, I was working as an activist getting things done. Sharansky and Bielski have been in public office for too long. We need someone new."