Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will ask President Shimon Peres to extend her time to form a government in her bid to become Israel's second woman prime minister, a senior aide said on Sunday.

Peres in September formally tasked Livni to form a new coalition government within 28 days after Livni was elected to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as head of their Kadima party.

Livni will on Monday ask Peres to extend the 50-year-old minister's mandate by a further 14 days, a request which the president was likely to approve, her aide told AFP.

Livni has so far reached an agreement with the Labour party to form a coalition government but she still needs the support of other parties, mostly the ultra-Orthodox Shas part, to form a majority in the 120-member Knesset.

Representatives of Kadima and Shas met again on Sunday in a bid to hammer out an agreement on the main sticking points which include Shas's demands to increase family subsidies and a promise not to discuss the fate of Jerusalem with the Palestinians, an official told AFP.

Olmert resigned last month to battle a wave of graft allegations and police have called for him to be indicted on corruption charges.

As foreign minister Livni has been leading US-backed negotiations with the Palestinians since the November 2007 Annapolis conference and has vowed to press ahead with the peace process if she becomes prime minister.

Last week Livni reached an agreement with the Labour party to form a coalition government but she still needs the support of some smaller political parties to form a majority in the 120-member Knesset.

If she is unable to form a new coalition in the coming weeks Israel will schedule snap general elections for early next year, which polls indicate could bring the right-wing Likud party to power.

AFP