Olmert plans to run in Kadima primaries in Sept.

Senior Kadima officials yesterday commended the deal struck between Kadima and Labor to prevent the vote to disband the Knesset.

"We twisted [Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's] arm and didn't let him destroy the party," a senior Kadima source said about the agreement, which puts off the next general elections to next year.

Olmert yesterday accused the opposition of trying to bring down the coalition with its criticism of the peace initiatives being carried out by the current government.

"Whatever peace negotiations we might be involved in will be met with opposition from you because you just don't want peace," Olmert said. He was speaking during a special Knesset session in the wake of a late-night deal sealed between Kadima and Labor to salvage the shaky coalition.

The crisis was prevented after Olmert pledged to hold a party primary for Kadima no later than September 25. In exchange, Labor will withdraw its support for disbanding parliament.

Kadima officially kicked off its primary yesterday. Its undertaking to hold its election by September 25 was the first step to removing Olmert from the party's leadership, Kadima sources said.

But the agreement does not prevent Olmert from running to keep his spot at the party's helm. Labor did not insist on such a clause in the deal, assuming that Olmert would not choose to contend.

Kadima sources said Olmert cannot afford to announce that he will not run in the primary because that would make him irrelevant. Olmert's aides said the prime minister was still determined to move the peace process forward.

Olmert and Barak had engaged in all-night mediation efforts to postpone a vote on the preliminary reading of a bill to dissolve the Knesset. Earlier this week, the Labor Party faction agreed it would support dispersing the Knesset, prompting Olmert to threaten dismissals of Labor ministers in the government who supported the move.

Assuming Olmert does not run and Kadima elects a new chairman in September, the party may have a prime minister and new leader at the same time.

In addition to holding a primary by September 25, the agreement stipulates that Kadima's faction will decide on holding a party council meeting by July 21 (after the cross-examination of U.S. fund-raiser Morris Talansky, scheduled for July 17.) The meeting would approve a change in the charter that would set the date for the primary.

Barak, for his part, can present the compromise as an achievement, and claim he managed to get Kadima to set a date for the primary.

The indirect negotiations between Olmert and Barak were led by the chairman of Kadima's committee for party matters, MK Tzachi Hanegbi, and the Kadima Council head, Rishon Letzion Mayor Meir Nitzan.

Nitzan and Hanegbi met Tuesday in separate meetings with Barak, and got the impression that he was open to the compromise. Barak said he would agree to the deal as long as it created institutions in Kadima during the coming week to bring forward the primary date.

Nitzan and Hanegbi passed this on to Olmert and told him that most Kadima faction members were urging him to compromise and did not want the Knesset to be dispersed.

Based on the Kadima charter, Olmert is the only official authorized to call a faction meeting. Another way to do so is by collecting signatures from 20 percent of the Kadima Council, which has 180 members. But such a step would be considered a dismissal of Olmert for all intents and purposes, so Kadima wants him to agree to the meeting.

Hanegbi said yesterday he was under the impression that "Barak and Olmert and all those who took part in the talks displayed national responsibility and commitment to the government's stability. When we signed the agreement we felt that a new leaf was opened in coalition relations."