Bibi scoops fourth term

Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday pledged to form a new governing coalition quickly after an upset election victory that was built on a shift to the right and is likely to worsen a troubled relationship with the White House.

In the final days of campaigning, Netanyahu abandoned a commitment to negotiate a Palestinian state - the basis of more than two decades of Middle East peacemaking - and promised to go on building settlements on occupied land. Such policies defy the core vision of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict embraced by President Barack Obama and his Republican and Democratic predecessors.

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With nearly all votes counted yesterday, Netanyahu's Likud had won 30 seats in the 120-member Knesset, comfortably defeating the center-left Zionist Union opposition on 24 seats. A united list of Israeli Arab parties came in third.

The result amounted to a dramatic and unexpected victory for Netanyahu - the last opinion polls published four days before the vote had shown Likud trailing the Zionist Union by four seats.

Although Netanyahu must still put together a coalition to remain in power, his victory all but guarantees that Israel's president will give him the first opportunity to form a government, putting him course to become the longest-serving leader in the country's history.

But the promises he made to woo ultranationalist voters in the final days of the campaign could have wide consequences, including deepening rifts with the United States and Europe and potentially emboldening Palestinians to take unilateral steps towards statehood in the absence of any prospect of talks.

Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator in peace talks that collapsed last year, lamented "the success of a campaign based on settlements, racism, apartheid and the denial of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people".

In a statement, Likud said Netanyahu intended to form a new government within weeks, with negotiations already under way with the far-right pro-settler Jewish Home party led by Naftali Bennett, the centrist Kulanu party and ultra-Orthodox groups.