Barak ups pressure on Israeli PM

It is the first time Mr Barak has given a deadline for Mr Olmert to go

Israel's defence minister Ehud Barak says he will support opposition moves to dissolve parliament if embattled PM Ehud Olmert does not stand aside.

Mr Olmert is under investigation for alleged corruption but has said he will not resign unless he is indicted.

On Wednesday he authorised a primary election for his Kadima party that could see him replaced as leader.

Mr Barak's Labour party is Kadima's main coalition ally. Mr Olmert denies wrongdoing and has not been charged.

The way things look now, we will join - in fact, lead - a proposal to dissolve parliament Ehud Barak

The Labour leader said he would seek to start the process of dissolving parliament on 25 June. This is the first time he had set a deadline in his calls for Kadima to replace Mr Olmert as leader.

"We prefer governmental stability to elections," Mr Barak told his party.

"But the way things look now, we will join - in fact, lead - a proposal to dissolve parliament."

Dissolving parliament would mean moving forward a general election, which is currently scheduled for late 2010.

Mr Olmert is being investigated over hundreds of thousands of dollars given to him by a US fundraiser in the years before he became prime minister.

A bill to dissolve parliament would have to be put to three parliamentary votes.

Fresh elections would almost certainly put paid to a US-sponsored negotiating timetable which envisioned peace with the Palestinians by the end of the year.