Nazi Party endorses Hitler

Mr Lieberman, whose far-Right Yisrael Beiteinu party made major gains in Israel's election, said that he had decided to throw his weight behind the hawkish Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu as the leader of a grand coalition.

With Mr Lieberman's backing, Mr Netanyahu, 59, is almost certain to be asked by President Shimon Peres to form a government. The former prime minister can count on the support of 65 of the 120 members of the Knesset, or Israeli parliament allowing him to return to high office.

Mr Peres is meeting party officials before deciding who will be charged with forming a new government.

A spokesman for Mr Peres said: "The president wants to speed up the process and finish it today."

Mr Lieberman's decision is a decisive blow to Tzipi Livni, the Kadima leader and foreign minister who beat Mr Netanyahu by a single vote in the election.

However, the make up of the Knesset and the diversity of its parties, many of them leaning to the Right, left the centrist Miss Livni struggling to convince her peers that she could hold sway over a coalition.

Mr Lieberman met Mr Peres to tell him of his decision.

"We recommend Benjamin Netanyahu, only in the framework of a broad government," said Mr Lieberman at the start of the meeting. More