By Allyn Fisher-Ilan

JERUSALEM, April 26 (Reuters) - Israel's defence minister may be forced to resign as a result of criticism levelled by an inquiry into a war in Lebanon due to be published in days, a television report said on Thursday.

A state-named commission will publish preliminary findings on Monday analysing the first five days of fighting and Israel's decision to launch the war after the guerrillas seized two soldiers at the border last July 12.

Israel's state-owned Channel One station said the panel's report would criticise Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose political future may also be decided by its findings, as well as Defence Minister Amir Peretz.

But the television, quoting sources familiar with the report, suggested Peretz, a former trade unionist of the leftist Labour Party, would bear the brunt of the panel's criticism.

"This report will stir a political storm," the station's political affairs reporter Ayala Hasson said.

"The recommendations will lead the public to the conclusion that there would be no moral justification to leave Peretz in his post," the television said.

The commission, headed by retired judge Eliahu Winograd, has said it would not comment on the report before its April 30 release date.

Olmert and Peretz, elected in 2006, have seen their popularity ratings plummet after the war, widely criticised in Israel for the army's failure to stop Hezbollah from firing rockets at its northern towns.

Peretz already faces a revolt in his party, with opinion polls predicting he could lose a leadership race to either former Prime Minister Ehud Barak or a former security chief, Ami Ayalon, in a primary election next month.

Both Olmert and Peretz have argued the war in Lebanon was an overall success in that Hezbollah's front lines were pushed back further from Israel's border, and a larger international buffer force was deployed in the troubled zone.

In the Lebanon fighting, 158 Israelis died, including 117 soldiers and 41 civilians. About 1,200 people were killed in Lebanon, including an estimated 270 Hezbollah gunmen.

In anticipation of the inquiry, Israeli generals have increasingly gone public with criticism of the war's handling. Major-General Gadi Eizenkot, an operations chief in the war who now heads Israeli forces at the Lebanese border, told school pupils on Wednesday the war had dragged on too long.

"The initial orders spoke of an operation lasting five to six days, a limited operation, with the understanding that it had limited objectives," Eizenkot said.

"In fact, it unfolded otherwise, into a long and controversial war, as is now known, whose outcomes are also in dispute."

AlertNet news is provided by