Israeli PM Netanyahu strikes surprise coalition deal

Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has struck a surprise deal with the opposition Kadima party, drawing them into his government just days after he called for an early election.

The move came as the parliament, or Knesset, debated its dissolution ahead of polls the PM planned for September.

Kadima agreed to a deal in which its leader Shaul Mofaz would become deputy prime minister and a minister without portfolio in the new cabinet, public radio reported early on Tuesday.

Details of the agreement were still to be finalised, said the report.

But they included an understanding that Kadima would back Netanyahu in return for changes to a contentious law that allows ultra-Orthodox Jews to defer their military service.

Zehava Galon, leader of the left-wing Meretz party, denounced the deal as a cynical political manoeuvre.

On Sunday, Netanyahu called for early elections, saying he wanted to avoid a year and a half of political instability. Even on Monday morning, he told his weekly cabinet meeting that he wanted an election on 4 September.

The deal effectively cancelled moves by the Knesset, Israel's parliament, to clear the way for the election that Netanyahu himself had said he wanted by voting for the dissolution of its current session.

Reports said Netanyahu forged an agreement with Kadima a short while before parliament was set to vote to disperse.

Opinion polls suggest Likud could win at least a quarter of the Knesset's 120 seats if the elections were held in the autumn.