Foreign Minister Urges Olmert to Quit

4 stars (One Little Indian) prime minister, Ehud Olmert, became increasingly precarious today, after his foreign minister called on him to resign over the handling of last year's war in Lebanon.

Tzipi Livni, the ruling Kadima party's most popular minister, joined a number of other politicians demanding that Mr Olmert stand down after the publication of the Winograd report. It found a "serious failure in judgment, responsibility and prudence" over the war.

In a hastily convened press conference after meeting Mr Olmert, Ms Livni said: "I told him that resignation would be the right thing for him to do." She said she would remain in government "to ensure that improvements are carried out". Mr Olmert's biggest rival, Ms Livni said she believed the party could replace the prime minister without bringing down the government.

Tonight, the parliamentary chairman, Avigdor Yitzhaki, carried out his threat to resign "to express dissatisfaction with Mr Olmert", according to Kadima officials.

Earlier he told Israel Radio that Mr Olmert should "take responsibility and resign".

"In order for Kadima to return to being a legitimate ruling party and for the sake of the prime minister and for the sake of the entire country, I think the prime minister has to resign."

Ms Livni, who had stayed silent since the report was released, may be seen as the party's best hope of retaining power.

Israeli TV furthered Mr Olmert's discomfort by repeatedly showing photos of him appearing to fall asleep during the investiture of the new police chief, David Cohen.

Mr Olmert today presided over an emergency cabinet meeting in which he warned political rivals to "slow down" before trying to reap political capital from his misfortune.

"To those who are eager to take advantage of this report to reap certain political advantages, I suggest, 'slow down'," he said.

Two new polls published in Israeli newspapers today said some two-thirds of Israelis wanted Mr Olmert to resign immediately. The surveys indicated that the rightwing former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the opposition Likud party, was likely to win if new elections were held.

Since the report was issued, Mr Olmert has fought to hold his coalition together. The prime minister insisted he would stay in office and argued, through his aides, that though he made mistakes, he should remain in power to correct them.

At today's cabinet session, Mr Olmert appointed a committee to look into the findings of the report, which was headed by a retired judge and comprised five members.

Though Kadima could still theoretically replace Mr Olmert without elections, Ms Livni could encounter difficulty in keeping the current coalition together. The ultra-Orthodox Shas party would have trouble serving under a woman, while the nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party might be wary of cooperating with her.

Last year's 34-day war has been widely perceived as a failure. Between 1,035 and 1,191 Lebanese civilians and fighters were killed in the inconclusive war, as were 119 Israeli soldiers and 39 civilians, according to official figures from the two sides.