AFP - The cabinet on Sunday unanimously approved a new attorney general, Yehuda Weinstein, a senior criminal lawyer who has represented some of Israel's top politicians in graft cases.

The 65-year-old will replace the current attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, from early February for a six-year term.

Weinstein is considered one of Israel's top criminal attorneys specialising in white collar crime and has in the past represented current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ex-premier Ehud Olmert.

The latter is currently on trial for graft, the first ex-premier to face corruption charges, and is due to enter a plea later in the month.

Israeli media said that in his new post, Weinstein will likely have to withdraw himself from that case.

It is also not clear what Weinstein's role will be if his predecessor Mazuz decides to press corruption charges against Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Lieberman has been repeatedly quizzed by police over graft suspicions and Mazuz is due to decide soon whether to press charges against the controversial ultra-nationalist.

Lieberman, who denies all wrong-doing, is suspected of receiving large sums of money through fictitious companies and various bank accounts from abroad, according to Israeli media.

One of those from whom he is suspected of having received funds is Mikhail Chyornyi, who like Lieberman immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union.

Weinstein has been representing one of Chyornyi's former business partners, Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska, in a libel suit that the former has filed against the tycoon in a Tel Aviv district court, according to media reports.