Olmert awaits Lebanon war inquiry report

JERUSALEM, Apr 30 (Reuters) An Israeli inquiry into the Lebanon war was expected today to criticise Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sharply for launching last year's campaign against Hezbollah guerrillas but refrain from calling on him to resign.

Publication of interim findings by the government-appointed Winograd Commission at 5 pm follows reports in Israeli media over the weekend that Olmert would be censured for a ''rash and misguided'' decision to go to war.

Hezbollah fired 4,000 rockets into Israel during the war, sending a million people into shelters in attacks the Middle East's mightiest military failed to stop. Olmert's approval rating has since plunged to single digits in opinion polls.

Olmert's aides say he has no intention of resigning and, according to what Israeli television and newspaper reports described as leaked details of the interim conclusions, the five-member commission will not urge him to step down.

The veteran politician planned to hold a strategy session with cabinet ministers from his centrist Kadima party after the release of the report. Party officials said Olmert and the ministers would discuss a unified response to the findings.

''The prime minister appointed the committee. He respects the committee and he will respect the recommendations of the committee,'' Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.

Public dissatisfaction with Olmert seemed certain to mount should the official findings prove critical, and likely diminish his ability to pursue peacemaking with the Palestinians which the United States has been trying to spur.

A rally calling for Olmert and his government to quit was planned for Thursday in Tel Aviv. The demonstration was being organised by a former general, military reservists who fought in the war and parents of soldiers killed in the conflict.

STRATEGIC GAINS Olmert has argued that Israel made strategic gains in the 34 days of fighting that ended on Aug. 14 without achieving his declared aim of winning the return of two Israeli soldiers seized by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid on July 12.

Under a UN-brokered ceasefire, Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, was banished from border strongholds and a UN peacekeeper force was strengthened in southern Lebanon.

In the war, 158 Israelis died -- 117 soldiers and 41 civilians.

About 1,200 people were killed in Lebanon, including an estimated 270 Hezbollah gunmen, in fighting that included Israeli air raids in southern Beirut, one of the group's strongholds.

The inquiry commission, led by former Supreme Court Justice Eliyahu Winograd, includes another jurist, two generals and a public policy expert. It made no comment on the leaks.

Members of Olmert's centrist Kadima party said he would meet with its cabinet ministers to coordinate his response shortly after the panel presents its findings at a news conference.

Olmert has also been hit by corruption investigations, including one into his role as finance minister in the sale of a bank in 2005 and the approval of government subsidies in 2003 for a factory represented by one of his friends.

Investigators also are looking into his purchase of a home in Jerusalem in 2004 at what Israel's state comptroller said was a significant discount. Olmert has denied any wrongdoing in all of the cases.

Reuters SS GC1735