March 17, 2007	Saturday	Safar 27, 1428

JERUSALEM, March 16: After admitting he is widely disliked, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert fought for political survival on Friday as he struggled to make good on a promise to continue serving the country.

Olmert conceded to supporters of his Kadima party on Thursday that he was “very unpopular” -- but he still vowed to stay in power.

“I know that I am a very unpopular prime minister. Polls, the opposition and its leader (Benjamin) Netanyahu say so regularly, and even among you there are some who also say it,” Olmert told members of the centrist Kadima in Peta Tikva, north of Tel Aviv.

In recent days the Israeli media have highlighted Olmert's spiralling approval ratings with photographs comparing the demoralised and gaunt-faced Olmert of today with pictures from just eight months ago, showing a beaming prime minister flushed with the success of his election victory.

Widely regarded as a savvy political operative, Olmert pledged to party loyalists he would use his political acumen to fight back from dismal poll results showing that just two per cent of Israelis trust him.

“I think it's true, and that I am indeed an unpopular premier. But I am also an old political fox,” he said to applause.

“I know very well how I could have been popular,” he added, defending his economic policies, his handling of last year's 34-day war against Hezbollah, and his “total engagement in the affairs of the state” of Israel.

“Every day I get up to do my work, and that work is the state of Israel. That's why I was elected. Politics is an assault course, and the truth counts more than popularity... I will continue this work for a long time,” he said.

Despite mounting discontent from the media, public and even within his own party ranks, Olmert still has a comfortable 78-seat majority in the 120-member parliament.

It is still too early to pen his epitaph, the Haaretz newspaper said on Friday.

Olmert told the party gathering that “I have nothing to hide,” referring to a series of financial scandals in which he has been implicated.

He also called for an end to persistent rumours over the findings in the upcoming report of the commission of inquiry headed by retired judge Eliahu Winograd about the conduct of the war in Lebanon.

The high-level commission, appointed by Olmert to deflect public anger over the war, said on Tuesday that its interim report will assess the prime minister's personal responsibility, as well as that of Defence Minister Amir Peretz and former army chief of staff General Dan Halutz who has already resigned.

The commission's partial findings may not be published until April and its conclusions are yet to be written, but newspapers said Kadima is already preparing for Olmert's possible resignation amid demands by opposition opposition leaders for snap polls.The Jerusalem Post predicted Olmert would be forced to quit after the commission issues its report.

His speech did little to placate the Israeli media, which have upped the pressure on the premier as his support has flagged.

“It is doubtful whether there is a word today that can be said, a sentence that will penetrate the hearts, a speech that will make an impression, which can help Olmert change his standing or lengthen his term of office,” a senior writer for Israel's Yediot Aharnot daily wrote.—AFP