JERUSALEM - A majority of Israelis want Defence Minister Amir Peretz to resign and a commission to be established to investigate Israel's conduct in the month-long war against Hizbollah, opinion polls showed on Wednesday.

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz sits between two Israeli flags as he listens to his Chief of Staff Dan Halutz (unseen) during a press conference in Tel Aviv in July 2006. Peretz has vowed that the Israeli army would not allow the Hezbollah militia to return to south Lebanon.[AFP\File]

Seventy percent of Israelis said they disagreed with the government's decision to accept a U.N.-brokered ceasefire without the return of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hizbollah in a cross-border raid on July 12 that triggered the conflict.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a career politician who lacks the combat credentials of many of his predecessors, has faced a political backlash for failing to deliver a fatal blow to Hizbollah and for accepting the U.N. truce.

Olmert has seen his public standing plummet.

Only 40 percent of Israelis said they were pleased with Olmert's performance, down from nearly 80 percent in July, a poll in the Maariv newspaper showed.

Twenty-eight percent of respondents said they were pleased with Peretz's performance, down from over 60 percent last month.

Nearly half of Israelis - 49 percent - believe Olmert was responsible for Israeli failings during the conflict, according to Maariv.

While 41 percent believed Olmert should resign, 57 percent said Peretz should go, according to a separate poll in the Yedioth Aronoth mass circulation daily.

A truce to end 34 days of fighting between Israel and Hizbollah began on Monday and has largely held.

At least 1,110 people in Lebanon and 157 Israelis were killed in the conflict.

Except for Israel's ongoing conflict with the Palestinians, Israel suffered heavier civilian casualties in the Lebanon conflict than in any fighting since the war at the creation of the Jewish state in 1948.

Sixty-six percent of Israelis in the Maariv poll said no one won the war. A narrow majority - 53 percent - said Israel should have continued to fight instead of agreeing to the ceasefire.

Sixty-nine percent of Israelis said an official commission of inquiry should be set up to "examine the conduct of the political and military echelons", according to Yedioth.