JERUSALEM (AFP) - Lawyers for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday they would prove that the testimony of a US millionaire at the heart of a corruption probe of the embattled premier was "null and void."

"We are going to prove in this cross-examination that the testimony of Morris Talansky is null and void," Eli Zohar, a member of Olmert's legal team, told reporters ahead of the hearing. "Today is going to be very interesting."

His remarks came at the start of the third day of questioning of Talansky, a Jewish-American financier who in May testified that he steered some 150,000 dollars in campaign contributions to Olmert before he assumed office in 2006.

The 75-year-old Talansky had said much of the money was handed over in cash-stuffed envelopes when Olmert was Jerusalem mayor and trade minister, and may have gone to financing his penchant for luxury hotels and fine cigars.

Olmert has acknowledged receiving campaign funds from Talansky but has denied any wrongdoing.

On the first two days of Talansky's cross-examination last week, Olmert's lawyers sought to poke holes in his original testimony by eliciting statements that seemed to contradict some of his earlier claims.

Zohar accused Talansky of lying on several occasions, while Talansky said that the general picture he presented was accurate despite some minor contradictions.

The investigation is one of six pending corruption probes against Olmert and has provoked widespread calls for him to resign, not only from political opponents and local media, but from within his own fragile governing coalition.

Olmert's uncertain future has also cast a pall on US-backed Middle East peace talks formally relaunched in November and aimed at securing a comprehensive solution to the decades-old conflict by the end of this year.

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