Tzipi Livni yesterday moved one step closer to becoming the next prime minister of Israel after she finally secured a pledge from her party's biggest coalition ally to stay in the government and support her bid for the leadership.

Ms Livni, who currently serves as foreign minister, won the race to succeed Ehud Olmert as prime minister and head of the governing Kadima party in an internal primary last month. But she has faced an uphill battle in the weeks since to hold together the fractious government coalition assembled by Mr Olmert, who is stepping down to fight corruption allegations.