Speaking to journalists in Moscow, Ehud Olmert said Putin had assured him he would not allow attacks against Israel's national security.
Olmert said he appreciated the Russian leader's help in passing Resolution 1701 through the UN Security Council to impose an embargo on arms supplies to Lebanon's militant groups, but said Israel's border with Syria should be closed to prevent any further arms smuggling.
Omert said that if arms continue to be passed from Syria to Lebanon-based radical group Hizbollah, "we will put an end to it ourselves."
Israel's military conflict with Hizbollah in northern Israel and southern Lebanon began on July 12 when Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and fired rockets into the country. In the month of bloodshed that ensued, around 1,500 Lebanese civilians lost their lives to Israeli bombs, and much of the country's infrastructure was destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese remain homeless, and large areas of the country remain inhabitable due to unexploded cluster bombs.
Ehud Olmert said, however, that the United States would be delighted to achieve as much success in Iraq as Israel achieved in Lebanon, with just a fraction of its military capability. He claimed that Israel's two-month campaign in southern Lebanon had enabled it to destroy much of Hizbollah's infrastructure, putting an end to the organization's control over the territory. The premier said there were no Hizbollah strongholds remaining along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
On the Palestinian National Authority, Olmert said Israel is willing to enter into negotiations with the Hamas-led government without preconditions, but that the Palestinian side does not seem ready to sit down at the negotiating table, because of ongoing infighting as well as President Mahmoud Abbas' political weakness.
He said Israel will set free Palestinians held in its prisons, but not until the release of the Israeli corporal captured by Hamas militants in a cross-border raid on June 25, before the conflict broke out.
No compromise will be possible with Hamas as long as the organization refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and to renounce violence, Olmert said. An alternative political force should be found to this grouping, blacklisted by the United States and other Western countries as a terrorist organization, he added.
