Among those she spoke with by telephone was US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who hopes Livni and Olmert can still clinch some form of peace deal with the Palestinians before the Bush administration quits the White House in just four months.

Palestinian negotiators welcomed her election in Wednesday's poll, though they hold out little hope of a major breakthrough.

Mr Olmert is determined to go on handling talks with the Palestinians as caretaker premier until Mrs Livni forms a new team. The woman who would be Israel's first female leader since the redoubtable Golda Meir in the 1970s said after her narrow win in the Kadima party ballot that her priority was "stability".

Mrs Livni must persuade Defence Minister Ehud Barak to keep his Labour party in the coalition and do the same for the Jewish religious party, Shas. She met Barak at a routine security cabinet meeting on Thursday and later held talks with Shas leader Eli Yishai.