Olmert under pressure after military chief quits

Jerusalem, Jan 17: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has accepted the resignation of the chief of Israel's armed forces after internal investigations pointed to his responsibility for the setbacks of last year's Lebanon war.

The departure of Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz is a fresh blow to Olmert's government, already dogged by a string of political scandals.

Israel's state prosecutor ordered a criminal investigation yesterday into Olmert's role in the 2005 privatisation of Israel's second largest bank, the Justice Ministry said.

An official in Olmert's office said the prime minister would ''fully cooperate''.

Halutz, 58, told Olmert and Defence Minister Amir Peretz in a resignation letter he was quitting ''as the investigations have run their course''.

''With the echoes of battle having faded, I have decided to act on my responsibility,'' Halutz said in his resignation letter.

An Israeli government official told Reuters: ''(Olmert) asked him to reconsider and he reluctantly accepted his resignation.'' A poll published on Friday indicated Olmert's approval ratings had slipped to 14 per cent and his centrist Kadima party would lose nearly two-thirds of its strength in an election.

Kadima's solid majority in parliament makes the government difficult to unseat.

The right-wing Likud Party and other opposition groups have called for Olmert to resign and for new elections to be held.

Recent polls suggest Likud would win most seats in an election.

Israel's state comptroller had been looking into whether Olmert promoted the interests of two businessmen, described in media reports as close friends of Olmert's, in the state sale of Bank Leumi in 2005.

Neither men purchased the bank and Olmert, who was finance minister at the time, has denied any wrongdoing.

WAR IN LEBANON

The July-August assault on Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas drove them from Israel's northern border but failed to retrieve two captive soldiers, prompting many Israelis to call for a purge of the top brass.

Halutz will continue in his role until a new army chief is appointed. Israel Radio reported Peretz was expected to present the candidate for the post to the government on Sunday. Defence Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.

A retired Israeli general, Dan Shomron, recently handed in the findings of a probe he conducted into the war's execution.

Shomron's report, released in part last month, criticised Israeli military commanders for poor organisation during the war but stopped short of calling for Halutz's resignation.

At the time, Halutz said he was staying on, though two generals who had served on the northern front stepped down.

A government-appointed commission of inquiry is separately looking into the conduct of Olmert and Peretz, its work doing little to mollify Israelis who had demanded a more independent investigation.

The so-called Winograd Committee's interim report is expected to be out within weeks, and Halutz's resignation could stoke public pressure on Olmert and Peretz to follow suit.

''(Halutz's) resignation was really not preventable and I definitely hold that there should be further resignations to continue in this vein,'' Labour lawmaker Ophir Pines-Paz told Army Radio.

Some 1,200 mostly civilian Lebanese and 157 Israelis, most of them soldiers, died in the 34-day conflict, which erupted after Hezbollah seized the two troops in a deadly border raid.

Halutz was made chief of staff in June 2005, just before Israel launched a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, where, along with the occupied West Bank, Palestinians have been fighting for statehood.

REUTERS

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