Sharon may be charged with taking bribes

Israel's chief prosecutor has called for prime minister Ariel Sharon to be charged with taking bribes.

State attorney Edna Arbel has passed her recommendations - that Mr Sharon be charged with accepting bribes worth hundreds of thousands of pounds from a property developer - to the country's attorney-general Meni Mazuz, who has the final say.

Police have been investigating claims Mr Sharon accepted about £385,000 in bribes from Israeli businessman David Appel to help promote a tourism project in Greece and rezone urban land in Tel Aviv. Mr Sharon allegedly received bribes as foreign minister in 1999, and after he was elected prime minister.

Appel was indicted in January for allegedly bribing Mr Sharon, but investigators still have to prove the prime minister knew he was being bribed.