Israeli election?

Israeli Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni has abandoned efforts to form a coalition government, which will likely lead to an election early next year and jeopardize ongoing peace talks with Palestinians.

Despite a last-minute meeting with speaker of the Israeli parliament, Dalia Itzik, who had hoped to salvage negotiations for a coalition government, Livni decided to move forward with her request for an election call.

Livni met with President Shimon Peres late Sunday and told him that she was left with no other option.

"Even at the last moment, I was not prepared to mortgage Israel's economic and political future or the hope for a better future and a different kind of politics," Livni said in a statement broadcast on Israeli TV.

In earlier comments, Livni said there "is a limit" to the demands posted by opposition parties she was willing to meet.