Israeli Leader: 'I Won't Resign'

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in a newspaper interview published Thursday and to members of his political party that he will not resign despite corruption allegations and the possibility he might be indicted in coming weeks.

Sharon also said the burgeoning scandal will not deflect his attention from what he considers more pressing issues.

"I am not about to resign. I emphasize, I am not about to resign. I am busy with work from morning to night, and I do not intend to make time for issues that are under investigation," the Yediot Ahronot daily quoted Sharon as saying.

Later, to cheering supporters, he declared "I arrived here as prime minister and as chairman of the Likud, a position I plan to fill for many more years, until 2007 at least," referring to the date of the next scheduled election.

Justice Ministry officials said Wednesday they will decide within months whether to indict the prime minister for allegedly accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from a real-estate developer, who was charged with giving him the money.

"There are many issues that I am dealing with," Sharon told Yediot, referring, among other things, to an upcoming hearing at the world court in The Hague, Netherlands, on the legality of a security barrier Israel is building in the West Bank.

An Israeli court on Wednesday indicted real-estate developer David Appel for allegedly paying $690,000 in bribes to Sharon.

A poll conducted for Haaretz newspaper found 64 percent of Israelis polled before the indictments against Appel say Sharon must resign if it's found that he was involved in criminal affairs. More than two-thirds said they did not believe Sharon's claim that he knew nothing about the alleged bribery.

A Dahaf Institute poll published in Yediot on Thursday found that 49 percent of Israelis believe the prime minister should resign or suspend himself from office. The poll questioned 504 people. The margin of error was 4.4 percent.

If Sharon is indicted, he's obligated to suspend himself from office, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger.

Opposition politicians urged Sharon to resign now, and a leadership struggle in the ruling Likud Party already was brewing.

Sharon's spokesman, Assaf Shariv, said the prime minister could not comment on the case because of the investigation.

"I can guarantee there will not be an indictment," he told The Associated Press.

Later, to cheering supporters, he declared "I arrived here as prime minister and as chairman of the Likud, a position I plan to fill for many more years, until 2007 at least," referring to the date of the next scheduled election.

Haaretz reports that acting Attorney General Edna Arbel believes there is enough hard evidence to charge Sharon with receiving bribes. Authorities have received new evidence in the case and Sharon will be interrogated about the affair again. The work could be completed in a few weeks.

The chief police investigator also believes the evidence against the prime minister is very strong.

For Sharon to be charged, prosecutors must be convinced that a bribe was accepted with criminal intent.

Sharon is likely to fight a fierce battle to maintain his leadership.

"He will fight until the last bullet," Israel Radio political analyst Hanan Crystal said.

However, Hebrew University political analyst Menachem Hafnoen says Sharon may have little choice.

"The chances of him stepping down are very high at the end of this year, and I don't mean the Gregorian year but the Hebrew year which ends in September," he said.

The scandal is known as the "Greek Island Affair." Sharon's son, Gilad, allegedly received money from Appel, an activist in the senior Sharon's Likud Party, who was trying to promote a massive tourism project in Greece in 1999. Ariel Sharon was foreign minister at the time.

Appel is accused of giving Ariel Sharon money to promote the Greek Island project, and to help rezone urban land near Tel Aviv before and during his term as prime minister.

Ariel Sharon was allegedly asked to use his influence to push forward both projects, although neither came to fruition.

The indictment alleges that Appel sent a total of $690,000 to Sharon's family ranch in the Negev desert and that Appel promised to support Ariel Sharon in party primary elections.

The indictment also charged Appel with giving a bribe to Vice Premier Ehud Olmert to promote the Greek project when Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem in the late 1990s.

The indictment said Gilad Sharon, while hired as a consultant in the Greek project, served as a middleman in accepting the bribes.

Appel's lawyer, Moshe Israel, denied the charges.

"There is no doubt he is innocent," he said.

The indictment further complicated Ariel Sharon's legal problems. He also is being investigated for alleged involvement in illegal campaign financing.

Several Israeli ministers have been forced out of office in recent years due to legal run-ins. However, lengthy investigations against former prime ministers, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, did not result in indictments.