Israeli Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni received a strong blow in her cabinet-making efforts on Friday (Oct 24), as the third largest party closed the door on the ruling Kadima party leader.

The leadership of the Shas party, the Council of Torah Sages, decided not to join a new government led by Livni, said the ultra-Orthodox party in a statement, quoted by local news service Ynet, adding that Livni would not meet its demands.

The religious party, with 12 seats in the parliament, has mainly conditioned its partnership on Livni's promise to secure the status of Jerusalem and significant funding for the poor population.

"We cannot ignore the difficulties and hardship on days when the developed countries report is being published, and Israel is first in poverty. We suggested solutions for the poverty issues in Jerusalem, but our opinion was not accepted and thus we will not be able to join the government," said the statement.

The rejection drastically crushed the hope of a wide ruling coalition. With the second largest party Labor in her corner, Livni has secured 48 seats in the 120-seat parliament.

Without Shas, she would probably succeed in patching together an arrow coalition with some smaller parties, but is unlikely to guarantee a convenient majority.

In response, Livni repeated her statement made Thursday that she is set to meet with Israeli President Shimon Peres on Sunday to announce whether she is able to form a coalition before the Nov.3 deadline or to call for an early general election.

The would-be second woman premier in Israel's history has vowed to present a coalition to the parliament on Monday, the first day of the legislature's winter session. Her associates said she would pay a price for a coalition, but not any price.

Should her cabinet-making efforts fail, an early general election would be held, possibly in the spring.

Recent polls showed that the current main opposition party Likud, which has ruled out any possibility of joining a Livni government, would emerge as the biggest winner.

However, a confident Livni told her fellow party members Thursday that should an early election take place, "We'll win."

Editor: 张莹