The United States has forced the resignation of another senior Israeli defense official connected to arms sales to China.

Israeli defense sources said the Defense Department has forced the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to dismiss Yehiel Horev. Horev, the acting director-general of the Defense Ministry, would resign from his post in May 2007 but remain within the ministry.

"There were voices in the Pentagon that made it clear that they would not deal with Horev and that a crisis would soon ensue," a defense source said.

The Pentagon has identified Horev as one of several Israeli defense officials who sought to conceal Israeli arms deals with China. The sources said Horev was blamed by senior Pentagon officials for refusing to inform the United States of an Israeli upgrade of the Harpy attack unmanned aerial vehicle to China in 2004.