FACTBOX - Key facts about Israel leadership candidate Mofaz

(Reuters) - Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz, an ex-general who has said war with his native Iran could be "unavoidable", is a leading candidate in a race to succeed Ehud Olmert as head of the Kadima party and prime minister.

Following are facts about Mofaz:

* Mofaz, 59, secured a reputation for toughness in crushing a Palestinian uprising launched in 2000, first as military chief of staff and later as defence minister. His troops fought bloody battles with militants in Jenin and other West Bank cities.

* Now transport minister, he is one of two frontrunners in a September 17 election for leadership of the centrist Kadima party but trails Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in opinion polls. He was a founder of Kadima, along with then premier Ariel Sharon, Olmert and Livni, who bolted from the right-wing Likud in 2005.

* Mofaz was born in Tehran in 1948 and immigrated to Israel with his parents in 1957. Drafted as an paratrooper, he fought in three Middle East wars and was deputy commander of the 1976 raid to free Israeli hostages held in Entebbe, Uganda.

* He would be the first prime minister not born in Europe or descended from European immigrants to what is now Israel, a symbolic breakthrough for Jews born elsewhere in the Middle East, who have long complained of feeling second-class citizens.

* Mofaz has said he would pursue peace talks if he became prime minister. "As a father who has three children in the military, I want peace for them," he said.

* In early June, Mofaz said: "If Iran continues with its programme for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it ... Attacking Iran in order to stop its nuclear plans will be unavoidable." He has publicly pressed Western powers to stiffen sanctions against Tehran unless it froze its nuclear work: "It is a race against time," he said. "And time is winning."

(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)