26 January 2004	Monday	03 Zilhaj 1424

AL QUDS, Jan 25: The Israeli government on Sunday named a new attorney general, whose most pressing task will be to decide whether to indict Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for alleged corruption.

Menahem Mazuz was appointed just days after an Israeli businessman was charged with trying to bribe Sharon through his son, Gilad, along with deputy prime minister Ehud Olmert, in exchange for help in a Greek property deal.

Justice ministry officials said prosecutors are expected to decide, possibly in the next few weeks, whether to charge Sharon in connection with the so-called Greek island affair.

Despite calls for him to resign, Sharon has denied any wrongdoing and insists he will not go before his term ends in 2007. Mazuz, who served as deputy to outgoing attorney general Eliakim Rubenstein, was approved by 22 cabinet votes, with one abstention, army radio said, adding that neither Sharon nor Olmert had voted.

Both Sharon and Olmert were named in the indictment against Israeli businessmen David Appel, accused of trying to bribe Sharon while the then-foreign minister was running for leadership of the right-wing Likud party in 1999.-AFP