TEL AVIV—Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was acquitted of bribery in two separate corruption cases in an Israeli court on Tuesday, but found guilty in a third case on a lesser count of breach of public trust while serving as trade and industry minister.

The trial stemmed from a series of scandals that forced him from the prime minister´s office in 2008 and doomed peace talks with the Palestinians. Culminating the four-year trial, a three-justice panel in a Jerusalem district court ruled that the state prosecutor hadn´t proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Olmert knowingly profited from the double billing of tens of thousands of dollars in trip expenses booked through Rishon Tours, an Israeli travel agency, for fundraising for public institutions.

The court also ruled that the state failed to prove that tens of thousands of unreported cash donations made by U.S. businessman Morris Talansky to Mr. Olmert´s political campaigns constituted influence peddling.

However, Mr. Olmert was convicted of a conflict of interest in awarding public funding from the Trade Ministry´s "Investment Center" to companies that had retained the legal services of a close associate, Uri Messer. He was exonerated on a bribery charge in the same case.

Mr. Olmert´s resignation in late 2008 led to the cutoff of the latest round of active peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and forced a general election that brought Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu´s right-wing coalition government to power.

After the reading of the ruling, Mr. Olmert said the court had confirmed "there was no corruption" and alluded to the geopolitical fallout from the trial. "It´s impossible to ignore the far-reaching consequences of the decision to indict, both within the state of Israel and beyond the state of Israel," he said.

Mr. Olmert succeeded Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2006 and went on to lead the Kadima party to victory in elections shortly afterward. Although he advocated unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank, he ultimately held negotiations with the Palestinians that some analysts said went further than the Camp David talks of 2000 toward reaching a solution. The talks broke down after a war erupted between Israel and Hamas in late 2008. When he left office, his approval rating was below 20%.

Still, some political allies expressed hope Mr. Olmert will return to politics to fill a popularity vacuum on the center left. On Tuesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas phoned Mr. Olmert to congratulate him on the decision, the Haaretz newspaper reported on its website.

Still, such a return is unlikely in the near future. Mr. Olmert still faces a separate corruption trial on accusations that as Jerusalem mayor and as trade minister he accepted bribes from contractors to obtain generous construction permits on the "Holyland" residential development in the city. He rejects the accusations. (Copyright © Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) 07/11/12)