JERUSALEM - A report by an Israeli parliamentary committee on Monday placed responsibility for failures of last year's war against the Lebanese Hezbollah militia on the military.

The military leadership "ignored basic principles of Israeli strategy, which aims to bring the battle to enemy terrain and to protect the civilian population," Tzahi Hanegbi, the chairman of the foreign affairs and defence committee, was quoted by local media as saying in presenting the report.

He listed three major errors: reserve units were not mobilised early enough, it took too long to realise that air power alone could not halt Hezbollah rocket fire into Israel, and a ground offensive should have been launched earlier.

The report also accused military chiefs of "not having developed its operational plans and not to have prepared an appropriate plan of attack against Hezbollah" and criticised the government for "not having presented the army with clear objectives."

The report was the latest to blast political and military leadership over the war that lasted for 34 days last summer, killing more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

A wave of public criticism erupted in Israel following the conflict, widely perceived here as a failure for not having stopped Hezbollah rocket fire and for having failed to retrieve two Israeli servicemen whose capture by the Shiite militia sparked the conflict.

A government commission established to look into the conflict, the Winograd Commission, is due to release its final report early next year.

In April the commission published an interim report in which it blasted former army chief Dan Halutz and ex-defence minister Amir Peretz for having failed in their duties. Both have resigned.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was responsible for "serious failure," it said. He has refused to step down. -AFP