Special Report: Israel's General Elections

    JERUSALEM, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Israel's centrist Kadima party began a series of talks with other political parties on building a coalition government to be headed by Ehud Olmert, the Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday.

    A negotiating team of Kadima, which won last month's general election, will meet with representatives from Shas, Likud and Israel Beiteinu on Sunday and with the Gil Pensioners Party, United Torah Judaism and Meretz on Monday, said the report.

    Kadima officials said that the first days of the talks would be devoted to reaching a consensus on the coalition's guidelines on diplomatic and socioeconomic issues, while portfolios would be dealt with after the Passover holiday, which begins on Wednesday.

    Labor and Shas officials said they would focus on the government's socioeconomic platform in Sunday's talks, according to the newspaper.

Likud officials said they were coming "just to be polite" and they did not expect to return to a second day of talks.

The right-wing Likud, which used to be a dominant power in Israeli politics, only won 12 seats in the polls.

    On Sunday, Kadima is also expected to start talks with the center-left Labor party, which came a strong second after Kadimain March 28 elections with 19 seats.

    Labor was pronounced as a senior coalition partner by Olmert whose Kadima won 29 seats in the next 120-member Knesset (Parliament).

    Israeli President Moshe Katsav on April 6 formally asked Acting Prime Minister Olmert to form a new coalition government following his election win in March 28.

The prime minister-designate then has 28 days to formulate a new cabinet with a possible 14-day extension before his new cabinet is put to a parliamentary vote of confidence.

Olmert, who assumed premiership after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was felled in January, pledged to establish a broad coalition government as soon as possible.

    Olmert also promised to set Israel's final borders by 2010 and the new government would be based on his so-called convergence plan, under which Israel would withdraw isolated settlements in the West Bank but keep bigger ones. Enditem