The Olmert family has sold a Jerusalem residence to a Jewish American political donor at what real estate experts said was an excessively high price, Channel 10 television reported Monday evening.

The Prime Minister's Bureau said there was no connection between the sale and a $25,000 contribution to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's 1993 campaign for mayor of Jerusalem.

The contribution was unearthed in a Channel 10 investigation, based in part on a state comptroller's report on the matter, that found that businessman Uri Harkham contributed more than $25,000 to the municipal party United Jerusalem, the list on which Olmert was running for mayor of Jerusalem.

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Harkham told Channel 10 that he has never contributed to individuals, only institutions, and has certainly never made any contributions to Olmert.

The Olmerts sold the house - which is located at 54 Shiloh Street in the Nachlaot neighborhood and was registered in the name of Olmert's wife Aliza - to Harkham for $650,000 in 1996. Harkham sold the house in September 2000 for $400,000 to ultra-Orthodox buyers who planned to use it as a soup kitchen, Channel 10 quoted a relative of Harkham's as saying. The relative, David Ben-David, lives in Hadera and took care of the property before Harkham sold it. The Prime Minister's Bureau confirmed the details of the sale.

Harkham told Channel 10 that he sold the house because he was not happy with the way it had been treated and said the sale did not involve any corruption. The house, which the Olmerts bought in 1992, had served as a gallery for the display of artwork created by Aliza Olmert, after which the Olmerts' children moved in.

Ben-David added that Harkham sold at a loss after the businessman's parents, for whom the purchase was intended, decided that the residence did not suit their needs.