Israel takes Lebanon war panel's advice -officials

JERUSALEM, Aug 27 (Reuters) Israel's government has implemented all the recommendations of an inquiry panel into last year's Lebanon war on tackling crises more effectively, officials said today.

The Winograd Commission said in a scathing interim report released in May that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had acted impulsively in going to war against Lebanon's Hezbollah group after it seized two Israeli soldiers in July 2006.

It proposed the government give greater weight to advice from the National Security Council, which is comprised of defence experts, and improve coordination on diplomatic issues with the Foreign Ministry.

Government officials said the recommendations, including the establishment of a National Centre for Crisis Management that would operate within the Prime Minister's Office during emergencies, have been put into effect.

Giora Eiland, a retired major-general and former head of the National Security Council, predicted that despite the commission's advice, the prime minister and a small clutch of aides would still be the real decision-makers in wartime.

''This haphazard situation will go on,'' Eiland told Israel Radio.

The commission, which stopped short of demanding Olmert's resignation in its interim report, is expected to release its final findings within months.

Israel's defence minister and military chief of staff during last year's war have quit in response to public criticism of the way the conflict was waged.

During 34 days of fighting, Hezbollah fired some 4,000 rockets into Israel, exposing the failure of the Middle East's mightiest military to crush the Iranian- and Syrian-backed guerrilla group.

REUTERS RAR DS1505