Israeli police have raided Jerusalem's city hall to seize documents from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's time as mayor.

Mr Olmert is accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from a US businessman during his time as Jerusalem mayor from 1993-2003.

Mr Olmert has admitted accepting donations from Moshe Talansky for election campaigns but said he took no money for himself.

He is already being investigated in several other corruption scandals.

Police were also questioning Mr Talansky on Monday.

Resignation calls

The accusations have cast doubt Olmert's resignation would delay peace process ...
Olmert denies bribery allegations ...
Israeli police question Olmert on election funding ... on Mr Olmert's ability to conclude a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Last November, Mr Olmert, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and US President George W Bush pledged to reach a peace deal that would create a Palestinian state by the end of 2008.

Mr Olmert has said he would only resign if prosecutors filed criminal charges.

The latest difficulties for Mr Olmert became public last week as Israel celebrated the 60th anniversary of its establishment as a state.

President Bush is to visit Israel later this week to take part in the Israeli celebrations and to give the peace process a push.

Some opposition MPs have said the investigation would prevent him from devoting sufficient attention to running the country.

Israeli media are talking about the possibility of the government falling and early elections being held, says the BBC's Paul Wood in Jerusalem

The expected political beneficiary of all this would be the hard-line opposition leader and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says our correspondent.

A poll released on Monday indicates that six out of 10 Israelis think do not believe Mr Olmert's claims of innocence and say the scandal will weaken his ability to conclude a peace deal with the Palestinians.

The same ratio said he should resign.

New York-based financier Morris "Moshe" Talansky is said to have given hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to Mr Olmert at a series of meetings in the 1990s.

Mr Olmert said Mr Talansky had helped him raise election funds for mayoral election campaigns but he insisted everything had been legal and he had not taken any of the cash for himself.

Mr Olmert became prime minister in 2006.

(BBC)

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