The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Washington

Israel is inching toward using military force against Hamas in the Gaza Strip because Egyptian cease-fire efforts there are not "ripening," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday.

Olmert, who was wrapping up a U.S. visit dominated by discussions on the dangers of a nuclear Iran, said Israel was not eager to carry out a military operation in the Hamas-controlled territory but would not be deterred if the threat continued.

"As it looks now, it's closer to a military operation than to another arrangement," he told reporters. The reason is because Egyptian peace efforts "are not ripening in a way that can bring a cease-fire," he added. On Thursday, Olmert met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and spoke by phone with presumptive presidential nominees Barack Obama and John McCain. He also spoke with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

According to his office, discussions centered on the situation in Gaza and the Iranian threat.

Olmert's legal and political travails have been pushed into the background during his three days in the U.S., where he received four standing ovations during a speech to pro-Israel supporters and where President Bush warmly saluted him twice publicly as "my friend" in less than a minute before they met in the Oval Office.

Olmert called Iran "the main threat to all of us" ahead of his meeting Wednesday with Bush and later told reporters that it dominated the leaders' discussions.

Bush sought to reassure Israelis who are worried about the U.S. commitment to keeping Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Israel will one day be "wiped off the map."

"Iran is an existential threat to peace," Bush said. "It's very important for the world to take the Iranian threat quite seriously, which the United States does."

The visit has clearly been a welcome break for the beleaguered Olmert, who appeared relaxed and confident in a talk with reporters Wednesday. His domestic woes hadn't come up in his meeting with Bush, he said.