Israeli president says staying on amid sex scandal

JERUSALEM, Oct 30 (Reuters) Israeli President Moshe Katsav rebuffed calls to stand down today while prosecutors decide whether to press rape and sexual harassment charges against him, saying he would see out his term in office unless indicted.

Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz, the Israeli official now deliberating on whether police findings against Katsav warrant going to trial, wrote in a High Court statement yesterday that the president should consider suspending himself from duties.

But Katsav, who denies any wrongdoing, rejected the advice.

''The president has no intention of suspending himself,'' a Katsav spokeswoman said.

Police say there is evidence that Katsav raped and molested several female staffers while president and in previous public offices. Should the case go to court, it would be the first prosecution of an incumbent Israeli president on felony charges.

Katsav's functions are largely that of a figurehead, but the case has underscored widespread unhappiness in Israel with the national leadership following the inconclusive Lebanon war.

Mazuz said that, should Katsav be indicted, he would be compelled to stand down until the end of legal proceedings against him. But that would likely last beyond July 2007, when Katsav's term as president is due to end anyway.

REUTERS SP RK1918