Israeli foreign minister joins calls for Olmert to resign

Story Highlights

• Tzipi Livni says Olmert should make "personal decision" to resign
• Report said Olmert was too quick to go to war, defense minister inexperienced
• Olmert called for patience, asked his critics to "slow down"

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JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday that he should resign over his handling of last summer's war in Lebanon.

"I expressed my opinion that resignation was the right thing where he is concerned," Livni said at a news conference after her meeting with Olmert.

But she said whether Olmert goes or not is a "personal decision" for the prime minister. (Foreign minister to seek leadership of Olmert's party )

"I am not trying to oust him. It is a decision he has to make," she added.

Olmert gave no sign he is ready to quit. After the meeting between Olmert and Livni, an Israeli government official told CNN that Olmert told a meeting of the Kadima party he is in an uncomfortable position but he is not shirking from responsibility and will be the one to fix the mistakes.

There have been growing calls from both inside and outside the government since a commission issued an interim report Monday holding Olmert responsible for "severe failures" in the conduct of Israel's campaign against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

Livni said she does not support new elections but believes that if Olmert resigns, the Israeli parliament -- the Knesset -- can form a new government.

"If the prime minister decides to resign, I believe the Knesset can come up with a government ... a broad-based government," she said, adding, "I will not support a new prime minister from a different political party."

Livni is considered a rising star in Israeli politics but denied she is trying to use the crisis over the war in Lebanon to win the prime minister's job for herself.

"I didn't come to the Foreign Ministry as a way to get to the prime minister's office," she said.

She said she intends to remain in her job.

"I will remain in the government in order to make sure the process is undertaken to correct things," she said. However, she serves as foreign minister at the pleasure of Olmert, and it was unclear if he would fire her after her decision to tell him to resign.

Livni said she does intend to run for leadership of the Kadima party.

"Kadima needs to choose its leadership in a democratic manner, in primary, and when the time comes I plan to submit my candidacy," she said. "Now is the time to restore the public's trust in the government."

Currently the Kadima coalition, which Olmert heads as prime minister, holds 78 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.

But after the report on the war by the Winograd Commission, polls show that Olmert's support among the Israeli public is virtually zero.

On Tuesday, the leader of Olmert's Kadima faction also called for him to quit.

"I am trying to convince the members of Kadima to turn to the prime minister and ask him to resign for the good of the country, the Kadima party and his own good," coalition Chairman Avigdor Yitzhaki said on Israeli army radio. "In light of the findings of the report, the prime minister has no choice but to resign."

But at the start of Wednesday's weekly Security Cabinet meeting, Olmert called for patience.

"The members of the commission made it clear the main issue is learning the lessons derived from the failings," he said. "In my opinion that is the main obligation of this government -- the government that is responsible for the failings and is also responsible for the corrections.

"To all those that are in haste to make political gain I advise, slow down."

The Winograd Commission, in the interim report released Monday, said that Olmert was too hasty to go to war, that Defense Minister Amir Peretz was inexperienced, and that former Israeli army Chief of Staff Dan Halutz acted impulsively without disclosing that the Israeli military was not prepared to carry out a land war in Lebanon.

While there was a heavy loss of life in Lebanon during the war, Hezbollah remained a potent force at the end of the campaign and the two Israeli soldiers whose kidnapping sparked the conflict remain captives.

Cabinet member Eitan Cabel, a Labor Party member of Olmert's Kadima-led coalition, resigned Tuesday and called on Olmert to follow his lead, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

The storm gathering around Olmert, including mass protests, like one scheduled for Thursday in Tel Aviv, could force the successor to Ariel Sharon out of office -- and out as Kadima party chairman.

Yitzhaki has pointed to Livni as the natural replacement for Olmert. But Olmert, according to Israel's Channel 10 television, has rejected Livni as his successor.