( dpa ) - Israel Defence Minister and Labour Party leader Ehud Barak has decided to remain in the government, despite an earlier promise to pull his faction out the coalition once a report on the 2006 Lebanon war was released, Israel Radio reported Sunday.
The highly-anticipated report on the war was published on Wednesday and Barak has been under pressure since then from party activists to make good on his promise of last year to take Labour out the coalition if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert did not decide to build a new coalition or call new elections by the time the final report was released.
The withdrawal of the 19-seat Labour Party from the coalition would have left Olmert at the helm of a minority government and made new elections almost a certainty.