The Tzipi Livni party is distancing itself from the Netanyahu government-in-formation, despite reports at the start of the week that the Likud/Beytenu Party and Livni are close to signing the first agreement of any party to join the coalition, reports the Hebrew daily Maariv.

Political sources had told the newspaper that the two sides had agreed that Livni would be in charge of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, but the party wanted more guarantees that this would really be the case. Those same sources told the newspaper that Livni demanded freezing construction in Judea and Samaria and a guarantee that Netanyahu would not carry on any parallel negotiations, as opposed to the talks then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held while Livni was doing the same as his foreign minister.