JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's testimony to a Lebanon war inquiry will be made public within days, before the release of interim findings that could determine the unpopular leader's political future.

Officials said on Thursday that government lawyers told the High Court the Winograd investigative commission would publish no later than April 2 a transcript from Olmert's closed-door appearance last month.

The government-appointed commission is examining how Olmert, his cabinet and the military brass handled the inconclusive war that Israel fought against Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas last year and which many Israelis see as a failure.

Transcripts of testimony by Defense Minister Amir Peretz and the former chief of staff of the armed forces, Dan Halutz, who resigned over the military's shortcomings in the conflict, will be published along with Olmert's, the officials said.

Military censors may make deletions before the testimony is released, the officials added.

The inquiry board said last week it would issue an interim report in the second half of April, largely focusing on the decision to go to war after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a border raid on July 12.

CONSEQUENCES

The preliminary findings, the commission said, would "draw conclusions" relating to Olmert, Peretz and Halutz, raising speculation in Israel the report could prove politically fatal to the prime minister and his defense chief.

Olmert, Peretz and the military top brass have seen their popularity plummet after Israel failed to crush Hezbollah in the campaign that ended in a U.N.-brokered ceasefire in August.

The two leaders have said the war, in which Hezbollah fired 4,000 rockets into Israel and the Israeli military bombed the group's strongholds in Beirut and southern Lebanon, succeeded in driving the movement's fighters away from the Israeli border.

In a hearing several weeks ago, the court ruled in favor of a petition by a left-wing legislator to order the commission to publish testimony from Olmert, Peretz and Halutz.

The setting of a release deadline was announced after the lawmaker complained the panel had not complied with the court's directive.

In a speech last week, Olmert called himself "an unpopular prime minister," citing recent poor showings in opinion polls.

One survey this month found that just 3 percent of Israelis would vote to re-elect the centrist Kadima party leader him if a ballot were held now.

Israel's next general election is scheduled for 2010. -Reuters