Opponents and media clamour for Olmert's resignation

Occupied Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced calls to resign on Friday after he admitted taking cash from a businessman in the middle of a police investigation into suspected bribery.

The Maariv tabloid quoted legal sources who said Olmert took hundreds of thousands of dollars from a New York financier tagged "The Laundry Man" in coded records.

Olmert has said he would only resign if the attorney general could produce sufficient evidence to indict him.

The right-wing opposition Likud party is calling for a snap election. Likud MP Yuval Steinitz said Olmert no longer has “public legitimacy, no moral legitimacy."

Shelly Yecimovitch, a member of Olmert's main coalition partner Labour Party, also called on Olmert to resign.

Yecimovitch said Olmert had "proved beyond any shadow of a doubt he cannot distinguish between being a suspect and being a prime minister."

Olmert has defended himself against a handful of other inquiries since he became prime minister in 2006. His son is currently in jail for raising secret funds for his campaign.