Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will announce his intention to resign at Sunday's cabinet meeting, his spokesman told Xinhua Friday.
Mark Regev, the spokesman for Olmert, said in a telephone interview that Olmert will announce his plan to resign on September 21, but he is not expected to formally submit his resignation letter to President Shimon Peres on that day.
The spokesman said the official date for Olmert's resignation has not been set due to upcoming Jewish New Year holiday and Peres' s trip to New York for the UN General Assembly.
In addition, the president needs to consult with the parliament's 13 faction heads over a seven-day period before entrusting Tzipi Livni, the newly elected Kadima leader, with forming a new government, added Regev.
Final results released by Israel's ruling Kadima party early Thursday showed that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni won the party's primary with a narrow margin. Over half of the some 74,000 registered Kadima members voted in the party's first-ever primary Wednesday.
Following the primary, Olmert is expected to resign from his premiership. Once he resigns, he would become caretaker prime minister and remain in power till the formation of a new government, a task expected to be assigned to the new Kadima chairperson by President Peres following consultations with parliamentary factions.
A maximum of three rounds of cabinet-making efforts are allowed,which may take from a few days to three months. Should such efforts fail, early general elections will be held, probably in next spring.
(Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2008)
