JERUSALEM - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has received formal approval from President Shimon Peres to form a new government.
The decision starts the clock on a 42-day period for putting together a new team.
If she succeeds in forming a coalition that can win parliamentary approval, Livni will become Israel's first female prime minister since Golda Meir in 1974.
But if she fails, an election must be held within 90 days.
The 50-year-old Livni, once an agent of the Mossad spy agency, recently won leadership of the Kadima party, the largest group in Israel's governing coalition.
She has pledged to pursue peace talks with the Palestinians and Syria, following up negotiations started under outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
