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By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM, March 13 (Reuters) - An Israeli inquiry into the failings of last year's Lebanon war will issue interim findings next month that will draw conclusions about Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's performance, a spokesman for the panel said on Tuesday.

Olmert, Defence Minister Amir Peretz and military top brass saw their popularity plummet after Israel failed to crush Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group in the 34-day campaign that ended inconclusively in a U.N.-brokered ceasefire.

Olmert and Peretz have said the war achieved military gains against Hezbollah.

Political pundits believe a drubbing by the government-appointed Winograd Commission of inquiry could trigger resignations or spur public demands for early elections.

Israel's military chief during the war, Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz, has already stepped down.

The committee's interim report will be published in the second half of April, spokesman Eli Shaked said in a statement, though some parts of it will not be for public viewing.

Shaked said a chapter on the government's decision to launch the war against Hezbollah after it abducted two soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12 would draw "conclusions regarding the responsibility of the prime minister, defense minister and military chief of staff".

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