Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon signed up the extreme-right National Union to his coalition this evening, bolstering his parliamentary majority with a sharp swing to the right that is likely to cripple his ability to meet international peace demands.
By taking Mr Avigdor Lieberman's nationalist bloc on board, Mr Sharon ended up doing exactly what he had tried to avoid. He had hoped to lure Labour leader Mr Amram Mitzna into a broad national unity government capable of facing US pressure to make concessions to renew the peace process.
The premier had hoped to do without the nationalist right, which stretched his previous cabinet too far and provoked the walkout of the centre-left Labour party over the cabinet's demands for ever tougher policies against the Palestinians and opposition to granting them a state.
Likud sealed talks on an alliance with the National Union after clinching a coalition agreement with the secular centre-right Shinui party, which holds 15 seats in the newly sworn-in parliament.
According to Israeli public radio, the National Union was still due to submit the terms of the deal to its central committee, but its seven MPs will help strengthen Mr Sharon's tenuous majority in the 120-seat parliament from just one to a more comfortable seven.
The agreement between the two parties would grant the nationalist bloc two portfolios, the radio added, probably transport and tourism.
With 68 MPs in the governmental alliance, Mr Sharon's cabinet will be difficult to topple.
A recent law stipulates that an absolute majority is needed to carry a motion of no confidence.
Yet the arrival of the National Union - an alliance of several small far-right parties - is expected to put the government under some of the strain that led to its collapse last autumn. Mr Lieberman's faction is staunchly opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state, but Mr Sharon has supported it in principle by signing up to US President George W. Bush's peace plan.
AFP