JERUSALEM (AFP) - A Jerusalem court on Friday ordered an elderly Jewish-American financier to stay in Israel to continue his testimony about giving Prime Minister Ehud Olmert thousands of dollars, despite a plea by the witness to return home until September. A visibly tired and seemingly exasperated Morris Talansky, 75, told the court on a second day of intensive cross-examination by Olmert's lawyers that he wanted to cut his scheduled five-day testimony short by two days. "I simply don't have the energy ... to stay more than Sunday. My wife, my life and business are absolutely in shambles because of this. This has just worn me out... I can't do it any more," he pleaded. But the court ruled that Talansky must remain. He is to appear on Sunday (tomorrow), as Olmert's attorneys continue trying to discredit testimony he gave in May. In a case that could bring about Olmert's downfall, the American testified then that he had given Olmert some 150,000 dollars in campaign contributions before he became premier in 2006, much of it stuffed into envelopes. Olmert acknowledges having received campaign funds from Talansky, but has denied any wrongdoing. Lawyer Eli Zohar focused on Talansky's claim in May that he had handed Olmert cash and cheques in envelopes, after the US businessman told court on Friday that he had only given Olmert cash. After Zohar accused him of lying several times, Talansky admitted sometimes contradicting himself but insisted that the general picture was true. State prosecutor Moshe Lador criticised the Olmert team for pressing Talansky on financial dealings that had nothing to do with the premier. These included various personal loans that he had made and an unsuccessful attempt to get the court to order that he turn over notes related to them. They also zeroed in on donations Talansky had collected on behalf of Israeli politicians over the years and passed on in cash. "The donors were always afraid of turning over cheques due to their fear of Knesset (parliament) members and politicians," he said. On Thursday, Zohar accused Talansky of forgetting details or being inaccurate in earlier testimony. "I never gave a false answer," Talansky said. A new probe emerged last week over whether Olmert illegally billed multiple private organisations and the state for the same airline tickets when he was Jerusalem mayor and trade minister. On a third front, there are allegations Olmert received a hefty discount in buying a Jerusalem apartment in exchange for using his influence to get a developer permission to build on a historic site. Olmert has denied all the allegations against him. Talansky's court appearance brought threats from Olmert's key coalition partner, the Labour party, to quit government if the premier did not step down. Without Labour, the coalition would not have the required 61 seats for a majority in the 120-member parliament. But neither Kadima nor Labour want early elections because both are outweighed by the right-wing opposition Likud party in opinion polls. Olmert was able to save the coalition last month by cutting a deal to hold a party leadership poll in mid-September. Outside Israel, many fear Olmert's deepening political troubles could scupper slow-moving Middle East peace talks relaunched in November and aimed at resolving the decades-old conflict by the end of the year.