Israel's chief prosecutor today officially recommended bringing charges against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a corruption scandal that could drive him from office.
The Justice Ministry said State Attorney Edna Arbel submitted a draft indictment to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, who would have final say on whether to put the 76-year-old prime minister on trial.
After Israel's Channel Two television reported on Saturday that Ms Arbel had prepared charges, Sharon came under pressure from within his cabinet to quit if Mr Mazuz decided to act on her recommendations.
"Under such circumstances, the prime minister should resign," said Infrastructure Minister Mr Yosef Paritzky of the Shinui party, Sharon's main partner in the governing coalition.
The developments plunged Mr Sharon deeper into trouble two weeks before a visit to Washington, where he hopes to win President George W. Bush's backing for his plan unilaterally to evacuate Jewish settlements in Gaza and some in the West Bank.
The case centres on payments of hundreds of thousands of dollars that an Israeli land developer and Likud stalwart made to Mr Sharon's son Gilad, whom he hired in the late 1990s as an adviser on a never-completed project to build a Greek resort.
Suspicions focus on whether Sharon, foreign minister at the time, tried to help win Greek government approval for the enterprise, promoted by Likud kingmaker Mr David Appel, now on trial on related bribery charges.
Mr Sharon denies any wrongdoing.