Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's main coalition partner has demanded he leave office over corruption allegations.
Defence Minister and Labour party leader Ehud Barak issued the call a day after a US businessman told an Israeli court how he had handed Mr Olmert envelopes stuffed with thousands of dollars in cash.
The prime minister's office declined to comment, but Israeli radio said Mr Olmert had held a closed meeting with confidants and told them he had no intention of heeding the call.
He has ridden out similar storms since taking office in early 2006, and Mr Barak was less than clear on what steps he might take, and when.
The labour leader also stopped short of action that would immediately bring down the government and trigger an election that could backfire: polls suggest the right-wing Likud under Benjamin Netanyahu would handily defeat Labour.
Mr Barak spelled out Mr Olmert's options as ‘suspension, vacation or resignation or declaring himself incapacitated’. He added ‘We will not be the ones to determine this.’
