MIDDLE EAST:The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, last night called on the country's president to resign after the attorney general said he would charge him with rape and other sexual offences.
An hour earlier the president, Moshe Katsav, had given an emotional news conference broadcast live in which he insisted he was innocent.
Mr Katsav (61), who has been under investigation since last summer, offered to stand aside for now, but said he would only resign if he was formally indicted.
However, Mr Olmert began a keynote policy speech last night by calling on Mr Katsav to go now.
"Under these circumstances there is no doubt in my mind that the president cannot continue to fulfil his position and he must leave the president's residence," Mr Olmert said.
Several MPs also called on Mr Katsav to quit now, saying he should not mount his defence while holding on to office. On Tuesday, the office of the attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, said it had enough evidence to support charges against the president including rape, harassment, sexual relations involving the abuse of power, obstruction of justice and illegally accepting gifts.
Mr Katsav is allowed one last hearing before any charge is formally laid.
Yesterday, Mr Katsav insisted he should stay on as president and dismissed the allegations as "poisonous, horrible lies".
"Don't believe the libel, the defamation, the lies. There is only one truth . . . I am the target of one of the worst attacks in the history of the state of Israel," he said.
At one point during his news conference, Mr Katsav singled out one Israeli television reporter and screamed at him for his coverage of the investigation.
The Iranian-born president implied that the allegations were the result of racism against Jews from the Middle East. "I saw myself as a symbol for all those who are not part of the elite clique born with silver spoons in their mouths . . . who believe that only they can represent the people of Israel," he said.
Allegations against the president, whose rise from the slums once served as a shining example for disadvantaged Jewish immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa, have stirred deep emotions in Israel, where the presidency is supposed to be a beacon of morality.
"[ Katsav's] resignation is the proper thing at this time," said minister for justice Tzipi Livni, who also serves as foreign minister.
Ms Livni, a member of prime minister Ehud Olmert's centrist Kadima party, said in a statement that Mr Katsav was innocent until proven guilty, but he should wage his fight to clear his name "from outside the president's residence".
Her comments were echoed across the political spectrum.