JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced Monday that he has prostate cancer but that the disease is not life threatening and he will continue to perform his duties.
Speaking to a packed news conference in Jerusalem, the Israeli leader said he will have surgery and that he has "full chances" of recovery. He said the disease was caught at an early stage.
Olmert, 62, took office in March 2006 after his predecessor, Ariel Sharon, suffered a debilitating stroke.
"I will be able to fulfill duties fully before my treatment and hours afterward," Olmert said. "My doctors told me that I have full chances of recovery."
One of Olmert's doctors, Shlomo Segev, said the prime minister had a biopsy on Oct. 19 and got the results a week later. Another of his doctors, Yaacov Ramon, said Olmert has a "limited growth" that poses no short-term threat. He said treatment could wait several months without any risk.
The announcement came at a delicate time in Mideast peacemaking, just weeks ahead of a U.S.-brokered summit designed to relaunch long-stalled peace talks. It was not clear how or if Olmert's illness would affect his already troubled efforts to frame a common outline with the Palestinians ahead of the conference, scheduled to take place in Annapolis, Md., in either November or December.