Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was questioned by police for an hour today, the second time this month that investigators have quizzed him over allegations he took bribes from an American businessman.
Investigators from the National Fraud Unit met Mr Olmert for a previously arranged appointment at his official residence in Jerusalem.
The scandal, which police and judicial sources say involves hundreds of thousands of dollars in questionable cash payments over a decade from the early 1990s, broke three weeks ago when detectives moved at short notice to question Mr Olmert on May 2nd.
Mr Olmert was questioned by police today
The prime minister has faced a handful of inquiries recently into his past financial affairs as mayor of Jerusalem for ten years until 2003 and subsequently as a cabinet minister until he succeeded the ailing Ariel Sharon as premier in early 2006.
He has withstood all those challenges and said he did nothing wrong in his dealings with New York Jewish fundraiser Morris Talansky. He has promised to step down if prosecutors can produce enough evidence to indict him.
The Israeli daily
Maarivreported today police were trying to determine whether Mr Olmert helped Mr Talansky advance business ventures in South America.
"The prime minister is convinced that as this investigation continues it will become clear that he has done nothing wrong," Mr Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said.
Mr Talansky, who was questioned after he arrived in Israel on holiday last month, also denies wrongdoing. A court decided today that he should give sworn testimony next week. Mr Olmert's lawyers had tried to prevent any such statement being taken.
Mr Olmert and his allies have stressed his importance both to Israel and internationally at the forefront of US-sponsored peace negotiations with the Palestinians and, as of this week, Turkish-mediated talks with Syria. Critics have suggested Mr Olmert revealed the Syrian contacts to draw the sting of the scandal.
Olmert aides have suggested that the investigation has been prompted by right-wingers angered by negotiations with the Palestinians that could result, notably, in a deal to let the Palestinians site the capital of a new state in Jerusalem.
Mr Olmert acknowledged earlier this month that Mr Talansky raised funds for his two successful campaigns for mayor of Jerusalem in 1993 and 1998, a failed bid to lead the right-wing Likud party in 1999 and a further internal Likud election in 2002.