Israel: Senior party member calls on Olmert to quit

Jerusalem, May 2: A senior member of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's party called on him to resign today to make way for a new government following an official report criticising his handling of the Lebanon war.

''A leader can only lead a public where he has, firstly, legitimacy and its confidence. The prime minister should act responsibly and resign to allow a new coalition to be formed by Kadima,'' the centrist Kadima party's parliamentary faction head, Avigdor Yitzhaki, told Israel Radio.

The fallout against Olmert began with the resignation of a cabinet minister of his main governing partner, the Labour Party, yesterday.

It later engulfed Olmert's Kadima party whose parliament deputies drafted a letter urging him to quit.

On Monday a government-appointed commission on last year's Lebanon war issued findings accusing the prime minister of ''serious'' failures in decision-making.

Olmert suffered his toughest blow when Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, a close associate with Kadima, was quoted as telling aides ''he must go''.

Olmert will convene a special cabinet meeting today to try to get its members to adopt a plan to implement the changes proposed by so-called Winograd commission, which blamed political and military leaders for the war's failings.

Reuters>