JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police raided the offices of a government ministry on Tuesday, confiscating documents as part of a bribery investigation that could force out Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Officers from the National Fraud unit entered the industry,trade, and labour ministry, and took away documents "as part ofthe ongoing investigation", police spokesman Micky Rosenfeldsaid.
Olmert headed the ministry from 2003 to 2006, beforebecoming prime minister.
He admitted last week that he took cash from an Americanbusinessman at the centre of the investigation but he hasdenied any wrongdoing. Olmert said he would resign if indicted.
The investigation could overshadow a visit startingWednesday by U.S. President George W. Bush to mark Israel's60th birthday and to promote peacemaking with the Palestinians.
On Monday, police confiscated documents from Jerusalem cityhall, where Olmert served as mayor from 1993 to 2003.
Legal sources say police suspect that Olmert took hundredsof thousands of dollars from the businessman, New York Jewishfinancier Morris Talansky, over a decade in coded payments.
Olmert said any funds from Talansky were contributions totwo campaigns for Jerusalem mayor in the 1990s and for posts inhis former political party, Likud, in 1999 and 2002.
Current Israeli law broadly prohibits political donationsof more than a few hundred dollars.
An opinion poll in a major Israeli newspaper on Mondayshowed that a majority of Israelis want Olmert to resign or goon leave over the scandal and do not believe his denials.
Olmert, who once described himself as "indestructible", hassurvived several earlier corruption investigations.
(Reporting by Avida Landau; Editing by Giles Elgood)
