MIDDLE EAST:Israeli police say they suspect prime minister Ehud Olmert of "serious fraud" after questioning him for a third time yesterday as part of a widening corruption investigation.
Mr Olmert, who is facing his fifth investigation since taking office two years ago, has not been charged with a crime and says he has broken no law. He has said he will resign only if he is indicted.
Police have been investigating claims that Mr Olmert breached party funding laws by accepting donations from an American businessman over the past decade, mostly through envelopes filled with cash.
After questioning Mr Olmert for over two hours yesterday, police said they would look, in particular, at the fact that while he was mayor of Jerusalem and then trade and industry minister, he asked for "duplicate funding for his trips abroad on public duty from several public bodies, including the state, with each of them requested to fund the same trip", a police statement said.
"The travel agency which handled [Mr] Olmert's trips produced and sent invoices to each of the funding bodies . . . as if each of them was solely funding the trips," the statement added.
Police said the funding was "significantly greater" than the cost of the trips. The remainder was put into a special private bank account in Mr Olmert's name and used to fund his private trips abroad, including those with his family.
Police said their investigation was at an "advanced" stage.
Mr Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem for 10 years until 2003, when he joined the cabinet of the then prime minister Ariel Sharon.
Mr Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said the prime minister was "convinced of his innocence". Morris Talansky, the businessman who has testified that he gave $150,000 (€94,000) in cash to Mr Olmert over several years, is due to be cross-examined next week.
Mr Olmert's Kadima party will hold internal leadership elections in September and some are urging Mr Olmert not to stand again. Opinion polls suggest a new leader will be chosen, probably Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister.
The investigation could hamper US-backed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians if Mr Olmert is forced to quit.
The corruption scandal broke two months ago when detectives moved at short notice to question Mr Olmert on May 2nd.