Israel ? Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni’s Kadima Party initialed a partial agreement Monday on bringing the Labor Party into a new governing coalition, but several issues remained to be settled before a formal pact, a Labor official said.

Livni also will need to attract support from smaller parties to form a new government to replace the one headed by former Kadima leader Ehud Olmert, who resigned as prime minister under the cloud of a corruption investigation.

If Livni fails to put together a coalition in the coming weeks, early elections would have to be called, further disrupting Israel’s peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

Lior Avnon, a spokeswoman for Labor, said her party’s leader, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Livni would try to produce a final agreement at a meeting this evening.