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Olmert to have cancer surgery
29/10/2007 12:36 - (SA)
Jerusalem - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Israelis on Monday he will have minor surgery to remove a cancerous growth on his prostate gland but assured them that it would not affect his ability to govern.
The 62-year-old premier told a hastily convened news
conference that he would have surgery in the coming months to
deal with a tiny growth in its early stages. He added that he
was not expected to need radiation or chemotherapy.
"From what my doctors have told me, this is a microscopic
growth ... that can be removed with a brief surgical
intervention," said, Olmert, a keen runner and fitness fanatic.
The growth was detected last week as part of annual check-up.
"The surgical procedure itself is planned to take place in
the coming months. I will be fit and fully up to my duties
before the procedure and within a few hours of its conclusion.
"There is nothing in the growth that is life-threatening or
that could compromise my ... fitness for my assigned role," said
Olmert, who appeared fit and relaxed.
"The Israeli public have the right to know."
High-pressure talks
Olmert is engaged in high-pressure, US-sponsored talks
with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, seeking a common
position on establishing a Palestinian state ahead of a peace
conference to be held later this year in the United States.
Olmert faces opposition within his own broad coalition
cabinet to making territorial and other concessions and many
observers questions whether he has the political capital to
implement any settlement that might be negotiated.
Washington appears keen to bolster Olmert, partly out of
concern that if he were forced out an Israeli election would
probably derail any chance of a deal on Palestinian statehood
before President George W Bush leaves office in January 2009.
Olmert has been dogged by criticism and talk of scandal for
much of the 21 months since he took over the premiership when
his centrist ally Ariel Sharon was incapacitated by a stroke.
Officials were criticised after Sharon lapsed into a coma
for not disclosing earlier medical problems to voters.
The death toll and inconclusive outcome of the war Olmert
launched last year against Lebanese Hezbollah fighters saw his
personal popularity ratings plunge to single digits. He was
heavily criticised by a commission of inquiry that has yet to
give its final conclusions. But he has refused to resign.
A lawyer and former mayor of Jerusalem, he is also fighting
a series of police investigations into allegations of corruption
while he was in previous posts. He denies all wrongdoing.
"I am indestructible," he was quoted as saying in April.
- AP
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