Israel's most popular newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, is launching a free national newspaper of its own, to compete against billionaire Sheldon Adelson's Hebrew-language paper Israel Today, which is to hit the streets within two weeks.

Yedioth publisher Arnon Mozes hopes the new paper will exceed the veteran daily's circulation of 250,000: the company plans on matching the expected 300,000 daily copies of Israel Today.

Also, businessmen David Wiessman and Eli Azur are preparing to launch a third free newspaper that is expected to reach a circulation of 250,000.

Mozes' associates said that he had decided to enter the fray so as not to allow Adelson and Wiessman-Azur to dominate the market.

The new papers will have to compete against the veteran free newspaper, Israeli, owned by businessman Shlomo Ben Tzvi. Israeli was launched last year and prints 180,000 daily copies.