(IsraelNN.com) The army will not be ready any time soon to handle another war, according to IDF Chief of General Staff Lt-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi.

The IDF chief warned the security cabinet Wednesday that the process of bringing the army up to battle-ready status would take several years.

The prime minister's office responded to the above report saying that "such remarks were never made and, in any case, cannot be interpreted as if the IDF is in a situation that requires rehabilitation." The prime minister's office did say that the IDF's thorough investigation process included issues "the correction of which will be implemented in the framework of a multi-year working plan."

Ashkenazi presented the results of military reviews conducted by the General Staff inquiry committees in the months following last summer’s war against Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon.

The Chief of Staff was joined in the presentation of the summary of the 30 reports by Deputy Chief of Staff Moshe Kaplinski and Brigadier General Danny Biton, the commander of the central ground forces’ training facility.

“Do not think the army will be ready in three months,” he told the security cabinet, adding that the first priority would be to upgrade training for soldiers who are assigned to especially dangerous missions.

Security cabinet members said they were impressed by the candor of the IDF’s self-examination. “The officers admitted where the failures were and which lessons were drawn,” said one minister. “The military certainly investigated the incidents, not just to round off the edges but to tell it as it is.”

The cabinet also had special words of praise for former IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz saying that in the wake of the war, he had run “a set of investigations that bordered on self-flagellation.”