Olmert backs Peres for president

Ehud Olmert said he backed Shimon Peres for the Israeli presidency
despite their differences over the Lebanon war. The prime minister moved
Sunday to rebut media reports suggesting that, after it was revealed that
Peres told a war inquiry commission that he disagreed with the scale of Israel’s
offensive against Hezbollah, he would no longer have the governing Kadima
Party’s support for his presidential bid. “I have no other candidate for
the presidency,” Israel’s Army Radio quoted Olmert as saying. “We will
continue striving for Peres to receive the appointment.” Peres is the
front-runner to succeed President Moshe Katsav, whose term ends in July but
who is widely expected to resign early given prosecutors’ stated intention to file rape charges against him.