Kadima, Labour clinch Israeli coalition pact

The agreement, which gives seven ministerial positions to the Labour, comes after marathon negotiations.

Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party on Friday finalised a coalition agreement with the second-largest faction in the Knesset, the Labour party, paving the way for the new government formation.

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The agreement, which gives seven ministerial positions to the Labour, comes after marathon negotiations to iron out major differences between the two parties, which had agreed in principle on April 4 to establish a coalition government.

As per the agreement, Labour will have Defence, Education, Infrastructure, Agriculture, Tourism and two ministers-without-portfolio, a big compromise over initial wranglings over the Finance portfolio that the ruling party will retain, sources in Kadima, which emerged as the single-largest party in the March 28 general election, said.

The Labour party's Central Committee will convene tomorrow for a secret vote on how to choose its ministers.

Party Chairman Amir Peretz, slated to become the Defence Minister, has asked the committee to approve the list of ministers he drew up. It is, however, possible that the committee will decide to conduct its own election for the party's ministers.