Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert brushed aside calls to resign from his foreign minister and other leading figures on Wednesday, acknowledging he was in a difficult position but vowing to fix all mistakes.
Two days after an official inquiry blamed Olmert for serious failures in handling last year's Lebanon war, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Olmert's deputy, said the centrist Kadima party needed new leadership to restore the nation's confidence.
"I am in a personally uncomfortable position, but I will not shirk my responsibility and will fix all the mistakes," a senior Israeli official quoted Olmert as telling Kadima legislators at a closed-door meeting. The official declined to be named. Livni, a former intelligence agent, said she would seek to take over as party leader.
"I told the prime minister that I thought to resign was the right thing to do," Livni said after meeting Olmert. "Now is the time to restore the public's trust in the government." Adding to the pressure, Kadima's parliamentary leader Avigdor Yitzhaki called on Olmert to "act responsibly and resign". He resigned his own post in protest during a meeting of the parliamentary bloc with Olmert.
Under Kadima's rules, Olmert cannot be ousted. The only course of action is to persuade him to resign, officials say. Parliament could force Olmert out through a no-confidence vote but there does not yet appear to be a majority to do so.
At an emergency cabinet meeting earlier on Wednesday, Olmert acknowledged personal failings. But he said: "I suggest that all those who are in a hurry to take advantage of this report and make political gain -- slow down."
Opinion polls in three major Israeli newspapers showed 65 to 73 percent of the public wanted Olmert to quit. The two frontrunners to replace Olmert are Livni, 48, and Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres, 83, a veteran statesman who has been prime minister on two previous occasions.
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