JERUSALEM, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Coalition Chairman of Kadima party Avigdor Yitzhaki is planning to call on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign during a meeting of the party faction on Thursday, Israel Radio reported on Tuesday.

    Sources in Olmert's Kadima party were quoted as saying earlier on Tuesday that Yitzhaki is gathering signatures for a letter he will present to Olmert on Thursday, asking him to resign in response to the Winograd Committee's scathing report on the handling of last summer's Lebanon War.

    A penal led by retired judge Eliyahu Winograd formally presented an interim report on the Lebanon War which blamed Israeli top leaders for "severe failures."

    The scathing Winograd Committee interim report said that Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and former Israel Defense Forces (IDF)Chief of Staff Dan Halutz all failed in their roles during last summer's Israel-Hezbollah conflict.

    Yitzhaki has spoken on Tuesday with a number of Kadima lawmakers on the possibility of replacing Olmert. Those who spoke to the coalition chairman were quoted by local daily Ha'aretz assaying that they had discussed the need to replace Olmert immediately.

    During the discussions, Yitzhaki named Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as the preferred successor to Olmert, which the Kadima lawmakers said they understood to mean that the move had been coordinated with her.

    Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has been working toward forcing Olmert to resign, sources in the prime minister's office said on Tuesday.

    Israel's Channel 10 television also reported that Livni told her aides on Tuesday that "Olmert must go."

    Local Channel 2 television said that a majority of the Kadima faction intend to back a call asking the prime minister to go.

    According to a Yedioth Ahronoth report, Olmert's aides said that the foreign minister has been secretly meeting with Kadima party's Knesset (parliament) members to discuss the possibility of replacing Olmert.

    In a televised address to the nation following the release of the Winograd report on Monday, Olmert insisted that he would not step down.

    Livni is viewed publicly as the leading candidate to replace Olmert as Kadima chairman as the foreign minister escape almost any criticism in the Winograd report and has refrained from providing Olmert with any public support.