ISRAEL’S foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, has moved into a strong lead in the race to take over the governing party, putting her in line to become the country’s first woman prime minister since Golda Meir became the original “Iron Lady” nearly 40 years ago.

Polls put Livni 15 points ahead in the Kadima party’s leadership contest, in which voting takes place this week. She is expected to replace Ehud Olmert, the prime minister whose entanglement in corruption allegations led him to announce last week that he would resign once the new leader is elected.

Livni, 50, whose stylish appearance belies her tough outlook, is said to be regarded as a hardliner even by her husband. Ha’aretz newspaper has reported Naftali Spitzer, an advertising executive and father of her two children, as telling friends she is more right-wing than Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the conservative opposition Likud party.

Livni served as a minister in her mentor Ariel Sharon’s Likud government but joined the centrist Kadima when he founded it before suffering a crippling stroke in December 2005. She has said the only negotiating language Likud liked to use was “no”.

A former lieutenant in the Israeli army, Livni joined Mossad, Israel’s overseas secret service. Based in Paris aged 26, she helped Mossad teams pursue Arab terrorists in Europe.

After Spitzer did not want his girlfriend to spend nights in European hotels surrounded by fit young Mossad agents she resigned, married and worked for 10 years as a lawyer.

“Mossad lost a great head of the organisation,” Spitzer has joked. “But I gained a wonderful wife.” In office she would face a daunting series of security dilemmas, including whether to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, how to respond to the threat from Hezbollah, and how to deal with Hamas, which controls Gaza.

She has been guarded on the threat from Tehran. “The military option is there, and to say more than that will be irresponsible on my part,” she told one newspaper last week.

However, she does not hide her opinions on Hamas. “If they resume firing, I’ll act first and then we’ll see,” she said.

On peace with Syria, she said: “Peace is not just eating houmous in a Damascus restaurant. It’s, above all, Syria’s exit from the axis of evil and giving up support for terrorists.”

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