Olmert says could target Hamas PM-designate

JERUSALEM, Mar 10 (Reuters) Israel could target Palestinian Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh if the senior Hamas leader gets involved in militant attacks, Israel's interim leader said in remarks published today.

Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been talking tough ahead of Israel's general elections on March 28 that his centrist Kadima party is expected to win.

Last week he vowed to use an ''iron fist'' against Palestinian militants after a rise in violence.

''Whoever is involved personally and directly in terror is a target,'' Olmert told The Jerusalem Post in an interview when asked if Haniyeh was a legitimate military target.

''If Haniyeh commits acts of terror, he is opening himself up to the possibility of being targeted. I hope he doesn't.'' Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, has largely abided by an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire declared a year ago and is due to form a government following its surprise landslide victory in January 25 parliamentary elections.

The Jerusalem Post today published its full interview with Olmert after releasing excerpts the day before.

A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, dismissed Olmert's warning as an election ploy.

''Olmert's threats are rejected and once again we confirm these threats do not frighten us and do not worry us,'' he said.

Olmert has come under pressure to show he is as ready to take tough military action as was Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who remains comatose in hospital after a stroke two months ago.

Hamas has carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000 and Israel has assassinated some of the group's senior leaders.

But Israel has held off targeting top Hamas officials over the past year since the truce has been in effect.

In interview excerpts released on Thursday, Olmert said he planned to impose permanent Israeli borders by 2010 through pullouts from parts of the occupied West Bank, unless Hamas recognised the Jewish state and renounced violence.

Israel wanted to preserve a Jewish majority in Israel and would keep and consolidate major Jewish settlement blocks, he said.

Yesterday, Haniyeh said the Palestinian people ''in this stage'' sought a state that included all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem and recognition of a right of return of Palestinian refugees.

Olmert's Kadima is expected to win the largest number of seats in the 120-member legislature. Polls published today gave the party 34-38 seats, far ahead of the centre-left Labour and right-wing Likud parties.

REUTERS SY BS1526