OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Deadlocked talks with potential coalition partners have forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek more time to build a new government and avert a possible snap election, officials said on Friday. They said Netanyahu would meet President Shimon Peres Saturday to ask for a two-week extension after his right-wing party, the narrow victor in Israel's Jan. 22 ballot, exhausted the standard four weeks allotted to build a coalition. Peres is expected to accept Netanyahu's request. However, should Netanyahu fail to win enough allies for a parliamentary majority by March 16 and a third term as premier, Peres could hand the task to a rival party leader. If no government emerged then, Israelis must return to the polls. US President Barack Obama is due to visit Israel at the end of March to discuss the stalemate in Palestinian statehood talks and other regional challenges like Iran and Syria. But he would likely cancel if Netanyahu failed to form a coalition. Washington has not published dates for Obama's trip, and the US Ambassador to Israel, Daniel Shapiro, has said it would take place only after the Israelis had a new government. Netanyahu's Likud-Beitenu ticket won 31 of the Knesset's 120 seats in the January vote — an eroded lead that required he cast a wide net for partners while juggling their disparate demands. He has faced unified resistance from the parties that placed second and fourth, Yesh Atid (There is a Future) and Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home), which insist Israel scale back the mass exemptions from military conscription and the welfare stipends it provides to ultra-Orthodox Jews. The third-biggest Israeli party, center-left Labor, has ruled out entering a government under Netanyahu. — Reuters
