Israel's parliament will hold a vote to approve a new government within a week, the speaker said on Monday, extending uncertainty over a bid by a broad coalition to push Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out of office after more than a decade.
In a formal announcement to the Knesset, Speaker Yariv Levin said opposition leader Yair Lapid had informed him and Israel's president that a coalition had been agreed, and that a vote to approve it would be held by June 14.
Mr Levin, a Netanyahu ally, said "a date for the session to establish (Israel's) 36th government will be conveyed down the line to members of parliament".
Opposition politicians have called for the vote to be held soon as possible to get the new government under way. According to Israeli law, the deadline for holding the vote is June.
Tensions between Mr Netanyahu and opposition politicians have been rising since the formation of the new coalition. On Sunday, Naftali Bennett, the prime minister in waiting, urged Mr Netanyahu to stop trying to derail the new government.
The delay in holding the vote gives Mr Netanyahu more time to win over members of the fragile coalition opposing him, which consists of eight parties and has only a narrow majority in the 120-member Knesset.
Failure to form a government will lead Israel to its fifth general election in less than two years.
