Jerusalem  - Israeli opposition lawmakers demanded Friday the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over suspicions that hundreds of thousands of dollars he received from a US businessman were bribes.

An Israeli court partially removed a gag order imposed on the new investigation against Olmert, which had sparked widespread speculation since the premier was first questioned over the suspicions Friday last week.

Olmert told an impromptu news conference in Jerusalem late Thursday that the money raised by US businessman Morris Talansky were donations for election campaigns when he ran for mayor of Jerusalem and for the leadership of his former hardline Likud party between 1993 and 2002.

He said he would only resign if the suspicions materialized into an indictment against him.

"I look into the eyes of each and every one of you and say: I have never taken bribes. I never took a dime into my own pocket," said Olmert, who now heads the ruling, centrist Kadima party.

"If the state attorney decides on an indictment against me, I will resign from my post. I hope and believe we won't get to that stage."

Lending her voice to other members of the opposition Likud party, legislator Limor Livnat told Israel Radio Friday Olmert was "unfit and unworthy" to continue in his post. She demanded new elections "within 90 days," and urged the Labour Party, Olmert's largest coalition partner, to quit the government.

Senior officials in the Labour Party of Defence Minister Ehud Barak, however, said they expected he would stay in the coalition, even though a few Labour Party lawmakers too called for its departure and Olmert's resignation.

Israel's Channel 10 television network reported late Thursday after the news blackout was lifted that Olmert received hundreds of thousands of dollars, large parts of it in cash, from Morris Talansky, a Jewish businessman and fundraiser from Long Island.

He received part of the money directly, and part indirectly, via his right-hand lawyer Uri Messer and office manager Shula Zaken, both of whom have also been questioned. (dpa)