In this paper, intense laser pulse guiding through a weakly ionized plasma channel is studied numerically. The radial profile of the channel refractive index is assumed to be top-hat. The propagating intense laser pulses are Gaussian TEM00 and Laguerre–Gaussian LG01 modes. The analysis includes the effects of plasma density inhomogeneity, diffraction, further ionization by the propagating laser pulse and nonlinearity arising from the nonlinear Kerr effect. Matched conditions are obtained for both TEM00 and LG01 laser modes for a top-hat refractive index profile. It is seen that the electron density profile changes the matched condition in the transmission of the laser pulse through the plasma channel. It is also shown that the nonlinear Kerr effect changes the matched condition and becomes the dominant effect in intense laser pulse propagation through the weakly ionized plasma channel
