Prime Minister Olmert of Israel gives resignation

Chicago Tribune

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, embroiled in a series of corruption probes, resigned Sunday, beginning a leadership transition that could take weeks and possibly months to complete.

Olmert handed a resignation letter to President Shimon Peres, who is expected to assign Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the newly chosen leader of the governing Kadima party, the task of forming a governing coalition.

Livni, who hopes to succeed Olmert, will have up to six weeks to get the job done, but has to contend with leaders of rival political parties already jockeying for advantage in expectation of possible elections should she fail.

An early sign of the challenges facing Livni was a meeting Saturday night between Defense Minister Ehud Barak, leader of the Labor party, and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads the rightist Likud.

Netanyahu has been calling for new elections, and the meeting suggested that the two party chiefs were coordinating their positions.

The narrowness of Livni’s victory in the Kadima party primary last week — she squeaked by with a margin of little more than 1 percent — is seen as having reduced her leverage and weakened her mandate to lead without a national vote.

Olmert is to remain in his post as caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed, but an extended transition period could put Israel’s peace talks with the Palestinians and indirect negotiations with Syria effectively on hold for some time.