MIDDLE EAST:EHUD OLMERT will continue to push for a peace agreement with the Palestinians in the time he has left in office, senior aides to the prime minister said yesterday, just a day after the Israeli leader announced he would stand down as party leader in September.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, on a visit to Tunisia yesterday, said he would continue working with Mr Olmert in a bid to reach an agreement. "We will work with any prime minister elected in Israel and we will continue with Ehud Olmert until the arrival of his successor," he said.
In his address on Wednesday, in which he said he would quit in September once his ruling Kadima party had chosen his successor, Mr Olmert said that as long as he remained in office, he would "not stop trying to continue to bring the negotiations between us and our neighbours to a successful conclusion".
Mr Olmert's decision to leave office comes amid a barrage of corruption allegations, including charges he illicitly received hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from a Jewish American businessman.
Former prime minister and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads the hawkish Likud party, said the government had racked up a long list of failures, including the Lebanon war two years ago, and that Israelis should go to the polls immediately. "This is a government that has come to the end of its road," Mr Netanyahu told Israel Radio.
But Mr Netanyahu, who consistently tops opinion polls, will not get his wish. Whoever wins the Kadima primary on September 17th will have six weeks to form a new government. If they fail, only then will Israelis go to the polls, with political insiders predicting that an election would likely be held by next March.
Throughout this period, Mr Olmert would remain at the head of a transitional government. But now that he has announced his resignation, it is highly unlikely he will be able to complete a deal with the Palestinians or the Syrians.
Mr Abbas said yesterday it was doubtful the sides would meet the year-end deadline for a comprehensive deal that was agreed at a US-led summit late last year.
Labour party politician Eitan Cabel said: "Would you rent an apartment from someone if you knew that in two months' time they would no longer be the owner of that apartment?"
That did not calm opposition fears that any agreements reached with the Palestinians or the Syrians would have to be honoured by a future government. "Can you imagine Bush, just two months before the election in the US, announcing that he has reached a strategic agreement with China!" fumed Likud's Yuval Steinitz.
Labour Party minister Isaac Herzog said it was doubtful Mr Olmert would reach any agreements. "But if there is a process of talking to our neighbours and our enemies then it is certainly worthwhile," he said, suggesting contacts would continue.