JERUSALEM - Israel's high court on Tuesday delayed the release of the first official report on the state's conduct during the Lebanon war, giving a respite to beleaguered Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss had been due to present his interim conclusions on the 34-day war last year to a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.

But ruling on an 11th-hour appeal by the army, the Supreme Court said the comptroller could not present any conclusions now, but could only talk about how he collected information for his report.

The comptroller, who has been embroiled in an unprecedented row with Olmert over the report, was expected to deliver a scathing verdict on the handling of the homefront before and during the 34-day against Lebanon's Hezbollah militia.

Lindenstrauss's inquiry is one of several probes into the conduct of the army and government in the July-August war, when northern Israel was hit by over 4,000 rockets fired by Lebanon's Shiite militia Hezbollah.

Olmert and Defence Minister Amir Peretz have rejected public calls to resign over the war's failure to halt Hezbollah fire or retrieve two soldiers captured in a cross-border raid that sparked the conflict on July 12.

In a bid to assuage public anger, Olmert last year tasked Lindenstrauss to review the state's handling of Israel's homefront, namely the performance of civilian protection and rescue services during times of emergency.

When Lindenstrauss hinted that his initial findings could scrutinise the personal conduct of several key players, including Olmert and the head of the army's homefront division, unprecedented mud-slinging erupted.

Olmert has faced plunging ratings after the war that failed to achieve its main objectives and amid a series of scandals involving him and top figures in his government.

The premier has accused Lindenstrauss of waging a politically motivated attack.

Lindenstrauss, who is also probing Olmert's allegedly unlawful real estate deals, has accused him of trying to divert attention away from his responsibility.

On Monday, homefront commander Yitzhak Gershon filed an 11th hour appeal to the Supreme Court against the report's release, saying the army was not given sufficient time to submit its account to Lindenstrauss.

Major war-time failures of Israel's homefront have already been exposed in a recent report by parliament's powerful defence and foreign affairs committee.

The Lindenstrauss report comes weeks ahead of the publication of the long-awaited findings of the main inquiry into the government's and army's handling of the war, the so-called Winograd committee headed by a retired judge.

More than 160 Israelis and 1,200 Lebanese were killed in the war that also saw Israel slammed abroad for the devastating use of its firepower in Lebanon, where thousands of homes and infrastructure targets were destroyed. -AFP