DW-World.de
Deutsche Welle

Israeli President Shimon Peres is set to ask Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu to form a new government. The president's office said in a statement that Peres would be meeting with Netanyahu shortly to make the request official.  The announcement came after Peres met separately with both Netanyahu and his Kadima Party rival, Tzipi Livni, hoping to convince them to form a broad governing alliance. Livni, whose party won one more seat in the Knesset than Netanyahu's, rejected the idea, saying that she preferred to go into the opposition rather than be part of a coalition led by someone else. Netanyahu would have six weeks to put together a government.