JERUSALEM, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Israel's right-wing Likud faction demanded Thursday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should resign and new elections be held in the wake of a penal report on failures in last summer's Lebanon War.

    The Likud voiced the demand prior to a special urgent Knesset(parliament) meeting later Thursday to discuss the findings of the Winograd Committee probing the Lebanon War failures.

    During a Likud faction meeting at the Knesset on Thursday, the Likud lawmakers slammed Olmert and called on him to resign immediately due to "confidence crisis" in public following the Winograd report, said a local newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.  

    "It is obvious that this government has lost all that was left of the public's trust," senior Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted as saying, adding that new elections should be held soon.  

    In wake of the Winograd report, Netanyahu enjoys massive public support. A Yedioth Ahronoth poll published on Wednesday revealed that 29 percent of the public would elect him the prime minister if elections were held today.

    Meanwhile, lawmaker Silvan Shalom also warned that "if this government stays in office, we may deteriorate even further."  

    He doubt the capability of the Olmert government to implement the recommendations of the Winograd report and to tackle serious crisis such as Iranian threat, escalation on the Syrian front or terrorism.

    The Likud member of Knesset (MK) also criticized Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who called on the prime minister to resign on Wednesday but decided to stay in the government.

    "How can you represent the State of Israel in the world when you don't believe in the prime minister?" Shalom asked.  

    Likud faction chairman Gideon Sa'ar echoed Shalom's calls bysaying that "the government and each of its members failed in the most important thing, in issues that concern life and death."  

    "The only solution to the crisis is the government's resignation and elections," Sa'ar added.

    MK Yuval Steinitz claimed that Olmert had completely misinterpreted the Winograd report and should not be given a chance of correcting mistakes.

    The Knesset plenum met Thursday for a special urgent meeting to discuss the findings of the Winograd Committee, which leveled heavy criticism at Prime Minster Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and former army chief Dan Halutz for their handling of last summer's  Israeli-Lebanese Hezbollah conflict.