Israel FM calls on prime minister to resign

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign on Wednesday over a damning Lebanon war report, upping the pressure on the beleaguered premier to step down.

"I expressed my opinion that his resignation is the right thing to do," Livni, a former close ally of the premier, told a press conference after meeting Olmert.

She has become the most senior member of Olmert's Kadima party and his ruling coalition to call on him to step down, further increasing the enormous pressure on him to quit.