Israeli police on Sunday recommended indicting beleaguered Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on corruption charges in two different cases, but the premier's lawyers dismissed the move as irrelevant.
The decision is unlikely to affect the political future of the 62-year-old premier who has denied any wrongdoing but announced in July he would step down following a public uproar over the array of suspicions against him.
Police said in a statement they had gathered enough evidence to indict Olmert on charges of taking bribes and breaching public trust over suspicions he had unlawfully accepted cash-stuffed envelopes from a US businessman.
Police recommendations dealt yet another harsh blow to the Israeli premier whose government has been battered by the corruption allegations.
While a final decision is not expected for weeks or even months, the Israeli media is almost unanimous in declaring that the police move marks the end of the Olmert era.
Olmert's government is already hobbled by mounting internal divisions that could prevent it from making any significant decisions in US-backed peace talks with the Palestinians or indirect negotiations with Syria.
"Olmert is a dead horse. Occasionally, he still kicks but his kicks are weak," the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper said in an editorial.
On Sunday Olmert failed to convince his cabinet to discuss a plan to compensate Jewish settlers who agree to relocate from the occupied West Bank to Israel as part of a future peace agreement with the Palestinians.
The presence of more than 260,000 settlers in the West Bank is seen as one of the main hurdles in the peace negotiations, which have made little progress since they were relaunched at a US-hosted conference in November.
The premier, who turns 63 at the end of September, has denied any wrongdoing but announced in July he would step down following a public uproar over the array of suspicions against him.
Olmert's lawyers have dismissed the police report as "meaningless," pointing out that only the attorney general can decide whether to indict, a decision that could be weeks if not months away.
And the premier's media advisor Amir Dan pointed out the attorney general had in the past ignored police recommendations to indict former prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon.
Police said they had gathered enough evidence to indict Olmert on charges of taking bribes and breach of public trust for allegedly accepting tens of thousands of dollars of illegal funds from a US businessman.
Police also recommended that Olmert be indicted over suspicions he had billed the same overseas trips several times over, allegedly using the ill-gotten gains to pay for private trips for himself and his family.
The allegations only surfaced earlier this year but concern events that took place in the 13 years before Olmert took office in 2006, when he served as mayor of Jerusalem and as trade and industry minister.
State prosecutors will now review the evidence and make their own recommendation.
Police said they would need to question Olmert further before deciding whether to recommend a third indictment over suspicions of cronyism in political appointments he made as minister in 2005.
"If I were the prime minister I would immediately step down," former Supreme Court judge Yitzhak Zamir told army radio. "He has no legal obligation to do so, but legal doesn't automatically mean Kosher."
Olmert has been dogged by several corruption investigations since he took office and has been interrogated seven times since May, when allegations emerged that he illegally received 150,000 dollars US financier Morris Talansky to finance his political campaigns and his lavish lifestyle.
Under mounting pressure from political rivals and allies alike, he announced at the end of July that he would step down after his centrist Kadima party selects a new leader in a September 17 leadership election.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and hawkish Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz are leading in opinion polls ahead of the party vote.
The winner will have to win a vote of confidence in parliament for a new governing coalition, otherwise the country will go to early parliamentary elections.
Opinion polls indicate the right-wing opposition Likud headed by Netanyahu would emerge as the largest party.