Likud ministers are expected to submit their resignations from the coalition government on Thursday, Israeli V Channel 2 reported, on Wednesday.
Channel Two reported that Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu had officially issued the resignation order.
Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported that the resignation was planned to be carried out earlier in the week, but was postponed out of respect for a stroke suffered last week by the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon.
Haaretz added that the four Likud ministers who left the Sharon government before his stroke had a little impact on him became his cabinet was serving as a caretaker of the government until the March 2006 elections.
The most senior member of the Likud, of the four, is the Israeli Foreign Minister, Silvan Shalom.
The resignation of the Likud ministers, following an earlier withdrawal by Labor, would leave Olmert with just six other active cabinet members, all of them from Kadima, Haaretz added.
Also, carried conducted a poll on Wednesday, and found that if Kadima party is led by Ehud Olmert, it would take 44 seats in Israel’s 120-seat parliament, which is the strongest opinion poll showing so far.
Sharon formed his Kadima party and quit the Likud in an attempt to escape the rightists who opposed his pullout plan last year, and oppose further withdrawals.
