JERUSALEM, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Israeli coalition chairman Avigdor Yitzhaki urged Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign from office on Wednesday, two days after a scathing report on the handling of the Second Lebanon War was formally released.

    According to local newspaper Ha'aretz, Yitzhaki, also a Kadima Knesset (parliament) member, declared that he will resign if the prime minister refuses step down.

    "If he decides that he will not resign, I will cease being the faction chair and the chairman of the coalition," Yitzhaki was quoted as saying.

    Yitzhaki told Israel Radio early on Wednesday that a large majority of Kadima members believe that Olmert should resign in order that Kadima can return to being a legitimate ruling party. The prime minister must taken action.

    On Tuesday Yitzhaki said he would call on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign during a meeting of the Kadima faction. Sources in Kadima said Yitzhaki is gathering signatures for a letter that he will present to Olmert, urging him to resign.

    Also on Tuesday, the Secretary General of Labor Party Eitan Cabel resigned his post as minister without portfolio and announced that he will convene the party's central committee next week to discuss Labor's withdrawal from the coalition.

    Cabel said that he "can no longer sit in a government led by Ehud Olmert" and called on Olmert to resign.

    An Israeli governmental investigative panel, headed by retired judge Eliyahu Winograd, released an interim report probing the shortcomings in the Second Lebanon War on Monday which accuses Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and former Chief of Staff Dan Halutz of failing in their roles.

    In a televised address to the nation following the release of the Winograd report, Olmert insisted that he will not step down. The cabinet will convene on Wednesday to approve the establishment of a special committee tasked with implementing the lessons of the Winograd report regarding the failures of the Second Lebanon War.

    The cabinet is also expected to form a ministerial committee,headed by Olmert, to monitor the report's implementation.