Final results released by Israel 's ruling Kadima party early Thursday showed that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni won the party's primary, local news service Ynet reported.

With all votes counted, Livni secured 16,936 votes, or 43.1 percent, as compared to 16,505 votes, or 42 percent, that went to her main rival, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, said the report.

With a narrow margin, Livni becomes the third and the first woman leader of the three-year-old centrist party, following the party's founder, former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit was the third with 8.5 percent of the votes, followed by Public Security Minister Avi Dichter with 6.5 percent, the report added.

Over half of the some 74,000 registered Kadima members voted in the party's first-ever primary Wednesday. As the top contender received over 40 percent, no second round would be held.

Following the primary, Olmert is expected to resign from his premiership, paving the way for his successor to form a new government. Should the cabinet-making efforts succeed, Livni would become Israel's second woman premier after Golda Meir.

Mofaz aides said that he has accepted the result, despite his lawyers' advice to launch an appeal due to an allegation that Mofaz was leading Livni by 800 votes after 30,500 votes were counted.

The next mission

In order to assume the role of Prime Minister, Livni must put together a new government after winning a threshold of 40 percent of the votes in the primary, for which she requires the cooperation of other parties.

Should Livni, or any other Kadima leader fail to establish a coalition, general elections will be held.

Livni was considered by many Israelis to be the only candidate who can put together a coalition government and spare the Israeli public from early elections.

In a victory speech since being declared the winner of the party 's primary, Livni said she will create government stability with other ministers, saying that she intend to meet with other factions in order to form a coalition.

She said to her primary opponents that "together we have one mission. Together we will create government stability."

However, there are certain difficulties in forming a new coalition. The ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, which could be key to building a new coalition, said that if Livni wants Shas to join her government, she must comply with Shas demands not to negotiate the fate of disputed Jerusalem with the Palestinians.

Earlier Wednesday, Likud faction Chairman Gideon Sa'ar declared that the Likud, a major right-wing political party in Israel, will not join the government led by the new Kadima chair.

Labor party also expressed the consideration earlier to go to general elections and accept the verdict of the voters.

The following policy

Since Livni was first elected to the parliament in 1999, she supported Sharon's disengagement plan and was generally considered to be among the key dovish or moderate members of the party.

After the US-sponsored Annapolis conference, which was held in November 2007, Livni was charged with the task of leading Israel's negotiating teams in talks with Palestinians on ending decades of conflicts between the two sides.

As leading peace negotiator, Livni is in bid to discussing all the outstanding issues between Israel and the Palestinians, and the future of Jerusalem is at the heart of the conflict.

It remains unclear whether she will change her policy toward the key issues between Israel and the Palestinians under the pressure of other party's demand.

However, Last week she pledged to work on forging a final-status agreement with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) if she wins the primary.

But Ismail Haneya, the deposed Prime Minister of Hamas in Gaza,said the Palestinians won't be affected by the Kadima's primary since "all the Israeli leaders unite in their hostile positions against our people and our rights, mainly Jerusalem and the refugees."

(Xinhua News Agency September 18, 2008)