Israeli minister quits in protest

Occupied Jerusalem: A member of Ehud Olmert's
cabinet, Eitan Cabel, quit on Tuesday, opening the first crack in Israel's government after the prime minister vowed to ride out a scathing reprimand by an inquiry into last year's costly Lebanon war.

Announcing his resignation, Cabel, a minister-without-portfolio from Olmert's main coalition partner, the Labour Party, told a news conference: "I cannot sit in a government headed by Ehud Olmert."

The government inquiry commission report, one of the harshest in Israel's history, blamed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his government of faulty judgment in ordering and directing last summer's war in Lebanon.

Cabel is the first member of the government to step down following the report.