Touted as the new Golda Meir, former Mossad agent-turned-politician Tzipi Livni has emerged as the new head of Israel’s ruling party and was set to become the Jewish state’s second female prime minister, less than a decade after she first entered parliament.

But the 50-year-old Foreign Minister won the narrowest of victories to secure the leadership of the centre-right Kadima party elections and to replace Ehud Olmert, her scandal-hit predecessor. Ms Livni won by a mere 431 votes – just one percent of the ballots cast – after a neck-and-neck race to the finish.

“The national responsibility bestowed by the public brings me to approach this job with great reverence,” said the new premier-in-waiting.

After a sluggish initial turnout, Ms Livni persuaded party officials to extend voting by an hour, a move that was challenged by her rival, the Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, who succeeded in reducing the extension to 30 minutes. In the end, the extra time may have proved vital to Ms Livni’s win.

Times Archive, 1948: End of Palestine mandate

The Jewish National Council in Tel Aviv has proclaimed a new Jewish State of Israel. Mr Ben Gurion has been made Prime Minister

• Archive Topic: Establishment of the State of Israel

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"The good guys won," Ms Livni told her supporters.

Shmuel Dahan, the party spokesman, said: "Kadima today has a new chairman. The chairman is Tzipi Livni." He put the result at 43.1 percent for Ms Livni to 42.0 percent for Mr Mofaz - a huge swing from the 10- to 12-point margins shown in exit polls.

Ms Livni favours reaching a swift deal with the Palestinians to set out the principles for two states living side by side. Mr Mofaz, a former general who led Israel’s 2002 reinvasion of the West Bank, was more cautious, arguing the Palestinian leadership should do more to shore up security before any agreement was reached.

Her slim win is likely to make talks to form a new coalition even more fraught. She has 42 days to stitch together a government or face new general elections, which polls predict would be another photo-finish, this time with the right-wing Likud Party which she quit to join Kadima.

Mr Olmert, who has promised to step down once a successor was chosen, phoned his successor to congratulate her. He will stay on as caretaker prime minister until she has a new formation in place, a difficult task with current ultra-Orthodox partners threatening to quit over her readiness to discuss a future division of Jerusalem with the Palestinians.

“If it becomes clear that Jerusalem is on the negotiating table ... then we won't be part of the coalition,” said Roi Lachmanovitch, a spokesman for the religious party Shas.

Last night, though, Ms Livni was in jubilant mood, telling her party faithful: “You have fought like lions. The best have won. I will do my utmost not to disappoint you. I want to do what’s best for the country.”

Ms Livni had run a successful Barack Obama-style campaign as the candidate for change, while Mr Mofaz was seen as less likely to commit to any of the compromises that backers of a swift peace accord deem necessary to end decades of conflict.

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